Hi Blue Dragon, I hope you don't think I was being combative with you, I was just trying to point out why I think the science is against Allmendream's notions about the "universal code." Those scientists who are postulating a "histone code" are saying that the evidence seems to suggest a seperate code that works with what Allmendream calls the universal code (the universal code being the genetic code). What these scientists are saying is that the histone code works with the genetic code, but it is not the same as the genetic code, in much the same way as Windows works with binary code, and yet is separate and distinct from the same.
Many scientists are even taking it a step further and postulating that the histone code is but a part of a much larger code (or codes) which they call the "epigentic code." They view this code as being "above" the genetic code because it plays a crucial role in cell differentiation, allowing for cells to take on very different physical characterists without altering what Allmendream calls the universal/genetic code in the slightest. According to these scientists, this evidence points to an epigenetic code, or a code that operates above the genetic code, that allows cells with the exact same genetic code to morph into all sorts tissues, organs, and even our overall anatomy. Allmendream would have us believe that this all reduces down to the genetic code. I think the evidence for such a notion is becoming rapidly outdated by the field of epigenetics. Indeed, the genetic code, which, if I understand allmendream's position correctly, is what he calls the universal code, may in reality be the simplest and most basic code of all. In fact, it is starting to look like the genetic code simply makes proteins in a way that is analogous to humans making bricks, whereas the epigenetic code fashions those proteins into all those cells, tissues and organs that must come together to form living organisms. Do you see how radically different epigenetics is from Allmendream's mechanistic/reductionist ideas about the genetic code being the universal code of life? Indeed, as one epigeneticist once put it, "The genetic code is the piano, the epigenetic code the tune."
PS I hope you don't mind, I am pinging yet more people to the discussion because I find this topic fascinating--GGG
My fiancee unit is coming home soon - shes in her last semester of her biochem degree (from a private Christian school even though we’re not Christians), is graduating summa cum laude in a fe months, and has verbal offers from 2 ivy league schools for her PHd. Her specific area of interest is molecular genetics, so if she isn’t loaded down with calculus homework, I’ll check in with her and see what she thinks. I’m sure she’s been following this.
Nope, I didn't think that at all, though for a moment it seemed as if you might have been steering me towards things I couldn't honestly agree with.
However, the balance of what you say in this last post gets us back on the right track.