Two distinguished scientists encouraged Warwick Collins in writing
his revolutionary theory of evolution. Professor Freeman Dyson, one
of the world's leading theoretical physicists, wrote, "I like your
theory, and think it has a good chance of being right."He added,
"Darwin would have liked your theory." Professor Donald Braben, a
nuclear physicist who directed a series of wide-ranging research
programs at BP, responded, "Hierarchically speaking, variation is
of greater significance than selection. I agree, therefore, that if
silent gene theory were proved correct, it would be the more
complete theory, as Einstein's is compared with Newton's."Charles
Darwin wrote in The Origin of Species that ..". unless profitable
variations do occur, natural selection can do nothing." As Darwin
recognized, natural selection, far from increasing variation within
species, reduces variation constantly in favor of an optimum type.
What then is the true source of variation in evolutionary systems?
It is a question which has obsessed Warwick Collins, a novelist who
had studied biology at university, for much of his adult life.He
proposed in March 2000 that the required degree of variation could
be achieved if large numbers of inert or silent genes existed
within the genome. Such genes, because they do not code for
physical characteristics, could freely mutate over time without
deleteriously affecting the host organism. At a later stage they
could be switched on, by largely random processes, and generate
exotic new variants. Remarkably, his description of silent genes
was found to correspond precisely with the so-called junk genes.
These are found in all species, forming the great majority of genes
in multicellular species and rising to 98.5% of the genome in
humans. Until then their function had proved mysterious. In
addition, Collins's theory predicted a number of features of the
silent or junk genes which have since been increasingly verified by
recent research: for example, that they could become active and
begin to code, and that they influenced other genes.It is now
widely accepted that, just as Collins predicted, the vast majority
of significant mutation in the genomes of complex species arises
from the silent genes. But Collins's powerful and ambitious theory
moves well beyond the molecular realm. He argues that while natural
selection is a major force in evolution, it is primarily negative
and entropic. Instead, the great driver of complex evolution is the
range of variation created by the silent genes. As Professor Donald
Braben writes in his illuminating foreword, "Collins is proposing a
general evolutionary theory which, if it continues to be supported
by the data, may in due course come to rival Darwin's theory that
evolution is driven by natural selection."
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