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This slide deck lays out the fundamentals of DNA damage and repair.
It explains why we are so good at repairing radiation damage,
and the importance of keeping the damage rate below the repair rate.
The information in this deck is a prerequisite for all the other
Gordian Knot Group slide shows.
Scientists find a "mitotic stopwatch" that lets individual cells remember something. //
How does something as fundamental as a cell hold on to information across multiple divisions?
There's no one answer, and the details are really difficult to work out in many cases. But scientists have now worked out one memory system in detail. Cells are able to remember when their parent had a difficult time dividing—a problem that's often associated with DNA damage and cancer. And, if the problems are substantial enough, the two cells that result from a division will stop dividing themselves.
What is Genetic Entropy? It is the genetic degeneration of living things. Genetic entropy is the systematic breakdown of the internal biological information systems that make life alive. Genetic entropy results from genetic mutations, which are typographical errors in the programming of life (life’s instruction manuals). Mutations systematically erode the information that encodes life’s many essential functions. Biological information consists of a large set of specifications, and random mutations systematically scramble these specifications – gradually but relentlessly destroying the programming instructions essential to life.
Is our genome decaying (see "Genetic Entropy"), and, if so, is this evidence for our genome being "young"?
In the book Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome the author says that the genome cannot be old because the genome is "decaying". Decay is a very subjective term, but in this case he means that the fitness of humans is going down not up. Is it true that our genome is decaying over time, and that the fitness of humans is decreasing? ....