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To: Nebullis
"Any sequence of DNA will be active. There's no such thing as a "blank" sequence of DNA. The activity of the sequence will depend on the molecules in the environment around it. But each base, each atom, no matter what sequence it is in, is active with properties peculiar to it."

Rubbish. If you are attempting to say anything more substantive than "chemicals react with each other," then that implies that EVERY possible iteration of DNA is capable of forming sustainable living beings. You could pour acids and bases into a test tube in every junior high science class in the world and create random, new life forms on demand if that was even remotely true.

It isn't. I can physically form a double-helix structure at home or work, but that doesn't mean that said structure is viable DNA. Likewise, I can physically melt and mold a CD-ROM from scratch, but that doesn't mean that data is automatically valid on it.

578 posted on 04/05/2002 8:59:17 AM PST by Southack
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To: Southack
I can physically form a double-helix structure at home or work, but that doesn't mean that said structure is viable DNA.

In fact it is. One can generate a series of random DNA oligomers, plug them into a cassette which code for something like a viral coat protein, and the attributes of the virus are changed. You see, it depends entirely on context.

The problem is that nobody knows the exact context of a pre-biotic or early biotic world. And any joker can pull out paper and pencil and describe a million ways life could not have formed. There's no trick to that. We're not even close to exhausting all possibilities, however, and there isn't a single demonstration of how life couldn't have formed which has anything of use to say about evolution.

580 posted on 04/05/2002 10:21:44 AM PST by Nebullis
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