[P2P-F] Fwd: Genetics Is Giving Way to a New Science of Life

Tue Feb 7 10:49:30 CET 2017

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jonathan Latham <jrlatham at bioscienceresource.org>
Date: Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 8:11 AM
Subject: Genetics Is Giving Way to a New Science of Life
To: bsR-PROJECT-ELIST1 at gn.apc.org

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Published today (Monday Feb 6th 2017) in *Independent Science News:*

*Genetics Is Giving Way to a New Science of Life*
by Jonathan Latham, PhD

https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/genetics-is-giving-way-
to-a-new-science-of-life/

*Synopsis:* "Genes...run everything in our bodies" states the website of
the US National Institutes of Health. This view is genetic determinism. It
is the idea that DNA is a master molecule that controls living organisms
and it has been the conceptual foundation of biology for over 100 years.
However, exactly twenty years ago, Prof Richard Strohman, of UC Berkeley,
predicted of genetic determinism that "this paradigm has liitle power and
must eventually fail". (Nature Biotechnology 15: 194-200, 1997).
That day of failure has now arrived. The paradigm of the centrality of DNA
is no longer tenable. It is collapsing in the face of numerous lines of
evidence. For example, we now know that life preceded the existence of DNA.
We also know that some cells and some organisms do not even possess DNA.
The emerging alternative is that life is a process that is coordinated and
influenced by *all* the molecules in living systems, including by their
physical structures and the various emergent properties of these. Life is
therefore self-organised. The novelty of this new view is that
DNA therefore plays just a modest part in the functioning of life, and even
in evolution. The implication is likely to be to release biology from what
has become a restrictive and dysfunctional paradigm. Equally, just as the
advent of Darwinism created social turmoil, so too might this new view
since genetic determinist thought has become deeply entrenched in our
social and political structures. For example, it is the deep cause of
social injustices such as racism.

Please consider sharing this article.

Best wishes and thanks

Jonathan

Jonathan Latham, PhD
Executive Director
The Bioscience Resource Project
Ithaca, NY 14850 USA

www.independentsciencenews.org
and
www.bioscienceresource.org

jrlatham at bioscienceresource.org
Skype: jonathanlatham2
Tel: 1-607-319-0279

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits
and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic
society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of
our country.”—Edward Bernays, Propaganda

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