RICKY GOES TO COLLEGER. Lopez, Presentation—October 18, 2006 / Intro to Psych, Ms. OlivettChapter 2: Genes, Brain, and Environment / "What is the impact of the environment on the brain?" [ An outline: black text = via course documents; blue text = me injected; brick text = my brain looping. ] |
Mendelian Inheritance (George Mendel, 1866) Mendel unknowingly imagines the workings of inheritance, without comprehending anything about the actual mechanisms involved. It would be another fifty years before his work would inform the beginnings of classical genetics.
The "elements" are genes, small sections of DNA
that produce specific 3-D proteins, which in turn form the building
blocks of our bodies and drive the processes that allow us to live.
Explicit (phenotype) and Implicit (genotype) information :::
Complex Inheritance—combinations of genes working together to produce an effect. |
By affecting our brains (structurally, chemically, functionally) genes can also affect our behavior.
In a '96 experiment by RYNER, a single gene is altered and affects the targeted sexual attraction of insects. |
However ::: It's not nearly that simple!
The PHENOTYPE is not a straight "read-out" of the GENOTYPE.
Such changes are called Plasticity, as the brain and its connections are molded by experience and external forces.
"Genes are not destiny..." They do not set characteristics, but rather they determine what is possible— |
And now, the rest of the story...
Genes not only instruct the fertilized egg that contains them how to go about unfurling... [We pause here for an overflowing page 4.] |
PAGE 4 / The personal + interactive ::: (images will open in handy little side windows.)
A few weeks ago I mentioned that in the realm of information theory, "1+1=3." Let me RUN you through an example of how this works for me ::: [ image 1 ]
A very small section of DNA, just to show its double helix structure, a ladder in spiral form. [ image 2 ]
Lower right, snaking in, the double helix again—your DNA, of which each cell in your body [ image 3 ]
This is how DNA, wrapped around those crazy histone molecules, looks wrapped around a chromatin fiber. [ image 4 ]
Back to our dear friend the double helix—the 34 angstrom length of DNA. [ image 5 ]
Perfect is Perfect. The Greeks began using the golden section, or "Divine Proportion" in architecture and sculpture a few
thousand years ago. The lengths of the lines and the rectangular AREAs of the Parthenon are in this ratio. [ image 6 ]
And in nature: the VOLUMEs of the chambers of the chambered nautilus grow in accord with this formula. [ image 7 ]
Leonardo da Vinci's "Vetruvian Man," which uses geometric golden sections in various ways to define [ image 8 ]
Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of erotic love, beauty, and fertility, [ image 9 ] Here is a contemporary example, Salvador Dali's "Sacrament of the Last Supper," with apostles dissecting the lines of the table at the exact proper places (Vitruvian Man's outstretched arms echoed in the vault of the ceiling), golden rectangles again rampant in the composition; and a DODECAHEDRON, of all things—a twelve-paned solid with pentagonal sides that is a kind of boiling golden-section stew, which brings us to... [ image 10 ] A Dodecahedron (of all things!) being spun vertically and proportionally and revealing the structure, symmetrically once again, of the double helix. And if you are capable of opening to some of this, then I have just created an ENVIRONMENT humming with conceptual connections, that may have forged a few new neural connections for you, and thus altered—hopefully in some thrilling and expansive way—your hungry little BRAIN. |
...Genes also continue to function in other capacities, making your hair fall out both randomly and in patterns, gumming up your arteries, deciding when its time to inject your Grandmother's arthritis into your joints, and making the path of blood circulation in your legs visible through the miracle of varicose veins. Also, genes are constantly being turned on again/off again—producing needed substances as required; initiating timely processes; making repairs and adjustments; and regulating functions.Although it may be convenient to talk about Genes and Environment as separate factors or discrete entities, they are actually different aspects of a single system. It's extremely important to note that, when it comes to the "whole picture," this is also true of every "thing" in the SYSTEM we refer to as The Universe. |
Genes can affect
the environment / The environment can regulate the genes.
|
"A Fin is a Limb is a Wing" pp. 110-135, November 2006 issue of National Geographic.
The new issue just out has a very sweet look at how the same gene sections in different animals produce variations on themes, as indicated by the article's title. Gorgeous photographs, cutting-edge Biology, and crystal clear explanations of the sub-title: "How Evolution Fashioned its Masterwork."
That's a very mainstream source, easily accessible. You can also try Googling "golden section" and "divine proportion". I got 382,000 hits for golden section, and 146,000 for the divine version.
Another good mainstream source is WIKIPEDIA ::: wikipedia.org/wiki/
The sections on DNA, Protein, Chromatin, Golden Section, etc., are really fine, and even if you don't totally comprehend them, they're still beautiful to look at. (This was how I sourced some of the images I've used.) Just plug a word into the search engine and go crazy. I do.
Try a quick tour through PhiMatrix ::: www.phimatrix.com/contents.htm for Phi ratio grids laid over numerous biological forms, butterfly wing patterns, George Clooney's face, daVinci's Last Supper...
Some of the books consulted, most of which can be found in a good library, and all of which can be found at my house :::
Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, by Gregory Bateson
Patterns in Nature, by Peter S. Stevens
Hypergraphics: Visualizing Complex Relationships in Art, Science, and Technology, Edited by David W. Brisson
On Growth and Form, by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Asking About Life, by Tobin & Dusheck
Questions, curses, help, offerings of forgiveness :::
ricklopez@bb10k.com / www.bb10k.com
After-class I sent an e-mail to my instructor :::
[QUOTE]Tonight confirmed for me in the most succinct manner possible that I am doing my class work primarily for my teachers, and in a way that is probably more true than it is for other students...
When I returned to my table, Ken [who also "presented" this day] says: "Thanks for making me look bad!"
(I say "No-No! Listen, I've been doing readings for years, if someone told me I had to be a medic in Iraq starting tomorrow like you've done I'd pee myself, shit myself, and pass out!")
The fellow in front of me says "What was all THAT about? You should be an anesthesiologist, you wouldn't need drugs, just
get people to pass out by talking about stuff like that..."
And the high-school phenom next to me waits and then asks "How long did it take you to put that together???"
At least that last implied some appreciation, although he's up for his presentation next week, so maybe it was just out of fear. Yikes.
[UNQUOTE]