Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Eusociality

'Gene Machines'

Tim Radford at the Guardian recently reviewed Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene 30 years after it publication, and noted how little was known about genes at the time. He wrote that, "(Dawkins) starts to work out how genes might survive to confer just enough advantage to allow their 'survival machines' to pass those genes on to a new generation," and that "Biological behavior arises to maximize a gene's chance of continuing on to the next generation." S. Pelech provides a series arguments to dispell the concept of "selfish genes" and the notion that natural selection works simply at the level of the gene and individual. He points out that if total biomass and persistence are the best measures for the most successful species on the planet, then eusociality plays as much if not a greater role than the individual. Read More...