Evolution 2.0

I'm about 20 pages away from finishing this really marvelous book. Has anybody else read it?

The blurb on amazon says:

Evolution isn't random events. It's RESPONSE to random events. Evolution 2.0 proves that, while evolution is not a hoax, neither is it random nor accidental. Changes are targeted, adaptive, and aware.

While placing my order on Amazon for this book, I glanced at my ever-growing "book wish list" to see what others I might order. The blurb for this book on my list was interesting considering the theme of this thread.

The biology of belief: Unleashing the power of consciousness, matter, and miracles
by Bruce Lipton (2005)
"Lipton challenges the long-held belief that experiences and character are determined by our genes. You have heard
phrases such as: it must be in my genes; depression runs in my family; and she’s got some of the family’s ‘bad’ genes.
The prevailing belief is that we are locked into our way of living in the world by our genetic makeup. Lipton, however,
suggests that this belief is a myth. In fact, every one of our 75 trillion cells is not controlled by genes, but by the
environment. He states “it is a single cell’s ‘awareness’ of the environment, not its genes, that sets into motion the
mechanisms of life”.
The implications of this are staggering."

This concept certainly provides added impetus for working to increase our attention and awareness.
 
I'm half-way through and wanted to reiterate how fascinating it is!

After the massive Darwinian programming that we all went through, it is refreshing to read this book. There are many genetic studies and concepts that are mainly accessible and understandable only to PhD researchers. The author digs them out and lays it all out in a simple and down to Earth way. In the process, you also learn basics about computer language and Information Theory. This helps to think in non-linear ways.

As I read the history of the fossil record and the multi regional vs Eve theories (i.e. Wolpoff and Caspari), intelligent design helps to put into perspective the puzzle that is the origins of our species. It allows for the possibility of quantum leaps. Also, how symbiogenesis (e.g. bacteria infecting a cell and becoming the cell's mitochondria) can result in something quite new and beneficial, provided the host survives the "viral" infestation.

Lots of genetic surprises in there and many things to ponder about!
 
Found an interesting article from phys.org:

Pandoravirus: Giant viruses invent their own genes

June 12, 2018, CNRS

pandoravirus.jpg

Pandoravirus quercus, found in Marseille, France. Thin section, viewed via electron microscopy. Scale bar: 100 nm. Credit: IGS- CNRS/AMU

Three new members have been isolated and added to the Pandoravirus family by researchers at the Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université), working with partners at the Large Scale Biology Laboratory (CEA/Inserm/Université Grenoble-Alpes) and at CEA-Genoscope. This strange family of viruses, with their giant genomes and many genes with no known equivalents, surprised the scientists when they were discovered a few years ago. In the 11 June 2018 edition of Nature Communications, researchers offer an explanation: Pandoviruses appear to be factories for new genes—and therefore new functions. From freaks of nature to evolutionary innovators, giant viruses continue to shake branches on the tree of life.
In 2013, the discovery of two giant viruses unlike anything seen before blurred the line between the viral and cellular world. Pandoraviruses are as big as bacteria, and contain genomes that are more complex than those found in some eukaryotic organisms. Their strange amphora shape and enormous, atypical genome led scientists to wonder where they came from.

The same team has since isolated three new members of the family in Marseille, continental France, Nouméa, New Caledonia, and Melbourne, Australia. With another virus found in Germany, the team compared those six known cases using different approaches. Analyses showed that despite having very similar shapes and functions, these viruses only share half of their genes coding for proteins. Usually, however, members of the same family have more genes in common.

Furthermore, these new members are notable for the gigantic size of pandoravirus genomes, their diversity and the large proportion of orphan genes they contain: most of these viruses have large number of orphan genes, i.e. genes which encode proteins that have no equivalent in other living organisms (this was already the case for the two previously discovered pandoraviruses). This unexplained characteristic is at the heart of many a debate over the origin of viruses. What most surprised researchers was that the orphan genes differed from one pandoravirus to another, making it less likely that they were inherited from a common ancestor.

Bioinformatic analysis showed that these orphan genes exhibit features very similar to those of non-coding (or intergenic) regions in the pandoravirus genome. Findings indicate the only possible explanation is that the genes may originate spontaneously and randomly in intergenic regions. In this scenario, genes "appear" in different locations from one strain to another, thus explaining their unique nature.

If confirmed, this groundbreaking hypothesis would make these giant viruses craftsmen of genetic creativity—a central, but still poorly explained component of any understanding of the source of life and its evolution.
 
I finally finished the book. It is very interesting and fascinating. It's very different from what we have been taught in school.
Not this Evolution 2.0 finally have some sense.

All these mechanisms that are described in this book are pretty much explaining how evolution is really going on.

What we still have to find out is how all that started, How was the first DNA code created, because it is obvious that it was not created in some "happy chemical incident".

Great book that opens a lot of space for thinking.
 
I finally finished the book. It is very interesting and fascinating. It's very different from what we have been taught in school.
Not this Evolution 2.0 finally have some sense.

All these mechanisms that are described in this book are pretty much explaining how evolution is really going on.

What we still have to find out is how all that started, How was the first DNA code created, because it is obvious that it was not created in some "happy chemical incident".

Great book that opens a lot of space for thinking.

Well, I'm not sitting still on the topic. Frank Ryan: Darwin's Blind Spot and Virolution. Lots of answers there if correlated with things Cs have said!!! Amazing and scary stuff.
 
Virolution.

Aha! I knew it was an interesting reading! I haven't read it, but it was quoted in the book and I got the kindle version after feeling he just briefly explained a subject that should be covered much more.
 
Aha! I knew it was an interesting reading! I haven't read it, but it was quoted in the book and I got the kindle version after feeling he just briefly explained a subject that should be covered much more.
Sounds interesting. I will try to find that book and read it.
 
Best to read them in the order mentioned. Lots of really interesting stuff in Darwin's Blind Spot that relates to current day philosophical underpinnings of various social attitudes, like "social Darwinism". And it introduces you to the topic of Virolution in context.
 
Aha! I knew it was an interesting reading! I haven't read it, but it was quoted in the book and I got the kindle version after feeling he just briefly explained a subject that should be covered much more.

Just grabbed it on Kindle for $1.99 why not?

Best to read them in the order mentioned. Lots of really interesting stuff in Darwin's Blind Spot that relates to current day philosophical underpinnings of various social attitudes, like "social Darwinism". And it introduces you to the topic of Virolution in context.

So I guess that means Evolution 2.0 first? I'm reading 'Strange order of things' So much reading to do but I'm not complaining, I enjoy it.
 
Just grabbed it on Kindle for $1.99 why not?

So I guess that means Evolution 2.0 first? I'm reading 'Strange order of things' So much reading to do but I'm not complaining, I enjoy it.

Yeah, and try to get The Dopaminergic Mind in there. If anyone can't get it because of where they live or whatnot, send me a PM.
 
Yeah, and try to get The Dopaminergic Mind

I was already on it. That one is rentable on Kindle. I rented Maps of Meaning and Kindle let me keep my highlighted parts. So that's what I plan to do for that book. I just wanted to finish 'Strange Order of Things' first
 
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