I came across this facinating article HERE
while googling on the “immortal” cancer HeLa cell line.
New species?
In a paper published in the July 1 issue of the journal Cell Cycle, Duesberg and UC Berkeley colleagues describe their theory that carcinogenesis – the generation of cancer – is just another form of speciation, the evolution of new species.
Carcinogenesis and evolution:
Last year, Dr. Mark Vincent of the London Regional Cancer Program and University of Western Ontario argued in the journal Evolution that carcinogenesis and the clonal evolution of cancer cells are speciation events in the strict Darwinian sense.
New theory of cancer:
Duesbeg’s arguments derive from his controversial proposal that the reigning theory of cancer – that tumors begin when a handful of mutated genes send a cell into uncontrolled growth – is wrong. He argues, instead, that carcinogenesis is initiated by a disruption of the chromosomes, which leads to duplicates, deletions, breaks and other chromosomal damage that alter the balance of tens of thousands of genes. The result is a cell with totally new traits – that is, a new phenotype.
Flexible karyotype:
The karyotype does change as a cancer cell divides, because the chromosomes are disrupted and thus don’t copy perfectly. But the karyotype is “only flexible within a certain margin,” Duesberg said. “Within these margins it remains stable, despite its flexibility.”
HeLa cell line:
The 60-year-old cell line derived from her cancer has a relatively stable karyotype that keeps it alive through division after division.
“Once a cell has crossed that barrier of autonomy, it’s a new species,” Duesberg said. “HeLa cells have evolved in the laboratory and are now even more stable than they probably were when they first arose.”
New method to fight cancer?
Duesberg hopes that the carcinogenesis-equals-speciation theory will spur new approaches to diagnosing and treating cancer. Vincent, for example, suspects that cancers are operating right at the edge of survivability, maintaining genomic flexibility while retaining the ability to divide forever. Driving them to evolve even faster, he said, “might push them over the edge.”
I’ve been seeing stuff on this off and on for a couple months now.
As I said in another thread, the hippies are gonna freak.
Notwithstanding the hippies, if cancer is a new species of parasitic organisms, immortal but fragile, humans should prevail because humans are very efficient in making other species extinct.
I’ve been seeing stuff on this off and on for a couple months now.
As I said in another thread, the hippies are gonna freak.
Notwithstanding the hippies, if cancer is a new species of parasitic organisms, immortal but fragile, humans should prevail because humans are very efficient in making other species extinct.
Notwithstanding the hippies, if cancer is a new species of parasitic organisms, immortal but fragile, humans should prevail because humans are very efficient in making other species extinct.
Damn right! One of my favorite movies is Man vs. Nature: The Road to Victory.
I say leaving the Earth means we’ve won. We have so beaten and battered the planet that it has finally given up and we need to go find the next planet’s ass to kick. I say we kick the crap out of Mars next. Smug red bastard.
Humans are the super-predators on this planet. From this article HERE
Acting as super-predators, humans are forcing changes to body size and reproductive abilities in some species 300 percent faster than would occur naturally, a new study finds.
Dominant evolutionary force:
“As predators, humans are a dominant evolutionary force, he said.
So, if cancer is now recognized as a new parasitic species, just force it to evolve faster and “push it over the edge” to extinction, is possible.
Humans have touched off the world’s latest mass extinction, according to the report — published Thursday in the journal Science — and the consequences are being felt on land and in water systems as large predators vanish.
I say leaving the Earth means we’ve won. We have so beaten and battered the planet that it has finally given up and we need to go find the next planet’s ass to kick. I say we kick the crap out of Mars next. Smug red bastard.
Won? More like escape to Mars from the consequences of exploiting and polluting the earth to do the same to the hapless red planet (which could be from where terrestrial life came).
Humans are the quintessential exploiters, predators and polluters.
Won? More like escape to Mars from the consequences of exploiting and polluting the earth to do the same to the hapless red planet (which could be from where terrestrial life came).
Humans are the quintessential exploiters, predators and polluters.
“I came, I saw, I conquered”.......Julius Caeser
Bah! Take your hippie-speak somewhere else, Starchild. I say, pave over the planet, grow our food in vats and hydroponics, and get all Blade Runner up in this bitch.
