[In response to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060714/sc_afp/swedenspainscience_060714171218 " target="_blank">this</a> article.]
These DNAs could be faked. These scientists are out to decieve you by spiltting them to make them older and planting a bear's teeth in the cave.
26 comments
Well, I gather that every time DNA is split during cell division, a segment breaks off the end in a sort of countdown, eventually halting the process or something (I heard this a LONG time ago, I've probably only got the vaguest outline of it correct). I think the longevity people were messing with it. Of course, Thunderbird's post is nowhere near specific enough to tell if this is what he's referring to.
Oh, what's the use? Explaining how the dating techniques work, or explaining how science is always open to checking and rechecking by others who would love to disprove them, won't mean a thing to this clown.
~David D.G.
I'm sure you're right, Thunderbird, because as everyone knows, scientists keep jars upon jars of bear teeth just rattling them around and looking for a place to plant them.
Well as far as I know each strand of DNA has a certain set of chemicals at the end to hold it together or do something like that, and over time as DNA replicates over and over again those wear out and basically 'fray', which causes aging. But i doubt you know that do you Thunderbird? They just 'spilt' the DNA didn't they?
The end of DNA has telomeres, which shortens a little during division since the polymerase can't copy to the end. So when the telomeres get too short, the cell can die. But that's a cell lineage, and DNA doesn't get shorter as it gets older (timeline wise)--by that logic it would be longer, not split.
And if I could make a great scientific living by "splitting" DNA and planting bear teeth in caves--forget this PhD thing, where do I sign up??
Yes, all scientific data is faked. It's a giant atheist conspiracy, headed by Satan himself to deceive the faithful. Or, NOT!
ATShithawk, fuckoffandie.
The end of DNA has telomeres, which shortens a little during division since the polymerase can't copy to the end. So when the telomeres get too short, the cell can die. But that's a cell lineage, and DNA doesn't get shorter as it gets older (timeline wise)
More specifically, the non-germline cells of a multicellular creature have a certain number of telomeres at the ends of their DNA strands. Each time the cell divides to produce new cells, the telomeres get a little shorter. When the telomeres get so short that they disappear entirely, the cell can no longer divide.
This mechanism exists so as to prevent runaway cell division. We generally call a condition of unrestricted cell division "cancer," and do not consider such to be beneficial to the organism's long-term survival.
The important thing to remember here is that this telomere shortening only occurs during the mitosis of cells involved in building the organism's body. It does not occur in "germ line" cells, i.e. those cells involved in the production of gametes. The cells of any offspring start out with their telomeres at full length. Therefore, telomeres are useless for determining how many generations old an organism is, although the telomere lengths of certain cells can determine how long it's been since an organism was born.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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