Originally Posted by Mofro261
Ok. I do play scientist in real life. Part of my thesis work involved de novo protein design and process called directed evolution, causing mutations to accumulate for a defined desired effect. So yes I'm biased towards crazy scientific theories like evolution.
Changing existing information = adding new information.
Most mutations are not advantageous, some have absolutely no effect and a small subset are advantageous and/or led to new function. Beyond this, gene duplication followed by mutation leads to retention of function and new function.
Accumulation of beneficial mutations / time = evolution.
Accumulation of deleterious mutations / time = DEVO. that's D. E. V. O., or general state of american society.
Genome size and complexity are not directly correlated. One study (Trends in Genetics, Dec 2005) suggests that a species population size and genome size are inversely correlated, the smaller the total #'s the larger the genome size to act as a buffer against deleterious mutations.
On an unrelated note, two of my non-mormon sister-in-laws live in SLC 10+ yrs and are very active arts / outdoors. I have never heard them talk about being harassed by mormons, conversion etc but they readily admit it the valley has a different feel to it. I have heard them complain about the smog though.
