Sunday, February 26, 2012

Genome Chapter Summary (3)

"Chromosome 3: History"

Ripley began with the study of genes and say the that scientists has concluded that their "main purpose... is to sore the recipe for making proteins."  He then continues by describing Mendel's life and studies on pea plants, genes, and his relations to Darwin's studies.  His mentioned other issues such as "the problem of mutation [that] remained" and going through history we can see that "artificial mutation kick-started modern genetics."  The third chromosome discovered from a fungus called Aspergillus by two Spaniards, is introduced my Ripley towards the end of this chapter.  He states that it follow's Mendel's "abstract laws" by being "...the epitome of a boring gene, doing a boring chemical job in boring parts of the body, causing  a boring disease when broken" since it does not answer most questions that scientists ask, such as ones involving the origin of life and IQ.  Therefore, Ripley concludes this chapter with the discovery of the third chromosome.  

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