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| Virus On A Sesame Bun |
I. Don't Go There!
The thingy rebellion is ongoing in the London Philosophy School of Economics and Scientific Methods, but is it ongoing in microbiology within the virology sections?
The thingy rebellion has been brought about over and over again since the time when atoms were first discovered.
Dredd Blog explored the reasons why The Eugenicists were quite exercised about "the atoms thingy" as pointed out in discussing The Eugenics Review of yesteryear (Small Brains Considered - 16).
A similar periodical to that historical rag (The Eugenics Review) has picked up on and is carrying the ball toward the same old goal (The London School of Economics and Scientific Method, A Virus Is Not a Thing; got Trovants?).
Of course when 'Economics' and 'Scientific Method' get in bed together (at The London School) to play doctor one can expect such things to emerge.
Their emotional whining is a reaction to the notion that 'some things are not alive' because that notion is contrary to ancient eastern mysticism and some western mysticism (Small Brains Considered - 7).
Against quantum mysticism, some scientific institutions come right out and say machine things bluntly:
"Virus infection involves coordination of a series of molecular machines, including entry machines, replication machines, assembly machines, and genome packaging machines, leading to the production of infectious virions. This chapter provides an introduction to various viral molecular machines described in this book."
(Viruses). Dredd Blog has pointed out the growing realization that there is a difference between a rock and an amoeba:
"A new paradigm exists for understanding how cells function. Scientists are recognizing that the cell is a highly integrated biological factory with a modular architecture. Each modular unit acts as a molecular machine. These machines have highly specialized functions and are large assemblies of proteins and nucleic acids. They range in size from about 10 - 150 nanometers (10-9 m) [10-9 m] and provide environments in which chemical species can interact in a highly specific fashion. Molecular machines also function as mechano-chemical energy transducers, converting chemical free energy into mechanical energ A Virus Is Not a Thing).y for cellular processes. They operate cyclically, and can reset themselves.
With the genetic information gained from the U.S. Human Genome Project and DOE's Microbial Genome Program, scientists now have the raw information with which to observe, manipulate, characterize and, ultimately, replicate these large protein assemblies. Using conventional and newly developed microscopy techniques, PBD researchers, through an initiative called Microscopies of Molecular Machines (M3), are creating a toolkit for probing the inner workings of these molecular machines."
(The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine, 2014, quoting Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory).
But to be a bit fair, the anti-thingy folks admit that the "thing-view" is not just a thingy:
"Part of what makes the thing-view so attractive is its ability to provide scientists with a clear starting point for their investigations."
(ibid, The London School). And that "thing-view" whimpering is what the Eugenicists whimpered about too ... they whimpered about atoms and did all they could to 'not go there' (I replied to them on their blog in the comments section there).
II. Do Go There!
There are constants that are constantly being updated, i.e. made more concise and precise (NIST, Physics).
Dredd Blog has indicated a constant in both DNA and RNA (On The Origin Of A Genetic Constant, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).
Possibly the most well known virus recently is the SARS-CoV-2 virus associated with COVID-19.
In today's appendices I have provided a look at the atomic considerations (uh oh the Eugenicists will be trembling and whispering about the selfish atom) of both SARS-CoV-2 and its recent ancestor SARS-CoV-1.
The similarities and nature of these machines, these atoms, is detailed in the appendices (Covid-1 A, Covid-1 B, Covid-1 C, Covid-1 D, Covid-1 E, Covid-1 F, Covid-1 G, Covid-1 H, Covid-1 I, Covid-1 J, Covid-1 K, Covid-1 L, Covid-1 M; Covid-2 A, Covid-2 B, Covid-2 C, Covid-2 D, Covid-2 E, Covid-2 F, Covid-2 G, Covid-2 H, Covid-2 I, Covid-2 J, Covid-2 K, Covid-2 L, Covid-2 M).
These appendices contain additional information beyond what the previous DNA version contained (they have an additional):
"(atom counts: C: 42,070, H: 42,070, N: 42,070)"
That info is provided for each individual nucleotide so that you can calculate more easily where the atom statics originated within that genome.
I have updated the DNA software to do the same (in future posts).
Take a look at "the thingy" in those appendices if you dare ... it is only RNA.
III. Closing Comments
And remember the saying of a well known geneticist:
“Teleology is like a mistress to the biologist; he dare not be seen with her in public but cannot live without her.”
Don't forget that there was a time when the mistress wasn't quite six yet:
The next post in this series is here.
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