[Gllug] Norman Lamb MP

[Nix]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Tethys spake:
> 
> Nix writes:
> 
>>Indeed; an average of 30,000 mutation events per day per cell (most
>>caused by free radicals, not radiation). All but a vanishingly small
>>fraction are fixed immediately (or we'd all be dead).
> 
> Yep, but ultimately, that's the reason that we *do* die. The mutations
> and transcription errors, although few and far between, over time add up,
> and eventually make us non-viable.

Yes. (It seems increasingly likely, though, that a low level of damage
actually *helps*, by triggering the repair mechanisms to look for more
damage in an as-yet-unknown way. This makes adaptive sense, too; if
you've spotted damage repeatedly then the likelihood of your having been
hit with more damage that you simply haven't spotted yet goes up.)

And what on earth am I doing posting to this grossly off-topic thread?

;)

-- 
`If you want a vision of the future, it is a wireless broadband network
 feeding requests for foreign money-laundering assistance into a human
 temporal lobe, forever. With banner ads.' --- John M. Ford

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