Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants

James Wynn · 05 Aug 2010, 14:15 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:15:54 -0500
Subject: (urth) Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants
In-Reply-To: <4C5A724D.2070403 at io.com>
References: <0A589998-8CB7-4024-A68A-F47FFB410726 at liftingfaces.com>
	<4C5A724D.2070403 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4C5AC79A.9020104 at gmail.com>

>
>> Wolfe is quoted as thus...
>> "I didn't know that anybody was working in the Lamarckian area, today 
>> to be honest with you. I think somebody should be because I have 
>> never been convinced that Lamarck was wrong."
>>
>> Lamarckism states that acquired traits are inherited.
>
> Yes, but "Lamarckism" is not a product of Lamarck himself. Inheritance 
> of acquired characteristics is an ancient idea in one form or another, 
> and Darwin allowed something like it in his idea that somatic tissues 
> generated heritable "gemmules" in response to the development or 
> disuse of various organs.

Actually, aspects of Larmarckism are making a comeback with the 
understanding that our bodies are determined by more than our DNA 
blueprints. The following is a link to an abstract of a study that 
argues that your longevity is significantly determined by whether your 
grandparents experienced famine in their childhood.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/x61m87x016213823/

Obviously, if a trait can be acquired across generations based on 
experiences occurring before the second generation was even conceived, 
this could --over time-- have an evolutionary effect.

u+16b9

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