IaaC blog

hyperhabitat_final-presentation.pdf

experimental-strucures.pdf

In the intervening millennia, science has made major advances in genetics and gene expression, leading to the expansion of a new field: evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). Paleontology, genetics, embryology, molecular biology, and comparative anatomy all rub shoulders in Evo Devo. Finally evolution can be told not in just-so stories, but in step-by-step genetic transcriptions and protein translations. Rather than speculating on how insects developed flight, we can see exactly which genes are involved in making wings, and look at what those same genes do in flightless insects.

The study of embryonic stages across the animal kingdom flourished from 1830 on. Charles Darwin knew that the embryos of all invertebrates (worms, sea urchins, lobsters) and vertebrates (fish, serpents, birds, mammals) share embryonic stages so similar that the same names can be given to equivalent stages in different organisms. Darwin also knew that early embryonic development is based on similar layers of cells and similar patterns of cell movement that generate the forms of embryos and of their organ systems. Indeed, it could be said that evo devo (then known as evolutionary embryology) was born when Darwin concluded that the study of embryos would provide the best evidence for evolution. Darwin’s perception was given a theoretical basis when Ernst Haeckel proposed that because ontogeny (development) recapitulates phylogeny (evolutionary history), evolution could be studied in embryos. Technological advances in histological sectioning and staining made in the 1860s and 1870s enabled biologists to compare the embryos of different organisms. Haeckel’s theory lured most morphologists into abandoning the study of adult organisms in favor of embryos.

For more than a century, biologists had assumed that different types of animals were genetically constructed in completely different ways. The greater the disparity in animal form, the less the development of two animals would have in common at the level of their genes. The long drought in embryology was eventually broken by a few brilliant geneticists who, while working with the fruit fly, devised schemes to find the genes that controlled fly development. The discovery of these genes and their study in the 1980s gave birth to an exciting new vista on development, and revealed a logic and order underlying the generation of animal form. Genes were now what mattered in evolution; embryos were merely the vehicles that carried genes from one generation to the next. Embryology was finally divorced from evolution.

Sean B. Carroll’s book Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo, explains the theory of evo devo in a way that any type of reader, a student, a researcher, a scientist or a common person with existential concerns, can be able to comprehend it. Sean B. Carroll is a professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin Madison and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin. His research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity.

Perhaps the most surprising finding of Evo Devo is the discovery that a small number of primitive genes led to the formation of fundamental organs and appendages in all animal forms. The gene that causes humans to form arms and legs is the same gene that causes birds and insects to form wings, and fish to form fins; similarly, one ancient gene has led to the creation of eyes across the animal kingdom. Changes in the way this ancient tool kit of genes is used have created all the diversity that surrounds us.

The development of form depends upon the turning on and off of genes at different times and places in the course of development. Differences in form arise from evolutionary changes in where and when genes are used, especially those genes that affect the number, shape, or size of a structure. There are many ways to change how genes are used and that this has created tremendous variety in body designs and the patterning of individual structures.

Genes are made up of long stretches of DNA that are decoded by a universal process to produce proteins, which do the actual work in animal cells and bodies. The genetic code for proteins, a twenty-word vocabulary, has been known for forty years. What is striking is that only a tiny fraction of our DNA, just about 1.5 percent, codes for the roughly 25,000 proteins in our bodies. Around 3 percent of our DNA, made up of about one hundred million individual bits, is regulatory. This DNA determines when, where, and how much of a gene’s product is made. Regulatory DNA is organized into little devices that integrate information about position in the embryo and the time of development. The output of these devices is ultimately transformed into pieces of anatomy that make up animal forms. This regulatory DNA contains the instructions for building anatomy, and evolutionary changes within this regulatory DNA lead to the diversity of form.

The control regions of the genes are crucial and one gene can have many control regions. For example, in the fruit fly, there is a group of genes—known as the pair-rule genes—that express proteins in seven stripes along the body axis of the embryo; each of these genes has seven discrete control regions, and each region specifies one stripe. It is thus unsurprising that 95 percent of the genes that code for proteins are similar in humans and mice. Evolution of control regions has made us human; different from our primate ancestors.

Carroll explains the basic tool kit for development that all animals share, placing particular emphasis on Drosophila. He introduces both Hox genes, which are considered master genes, and widely used intercellular signaling molecules such as the proteins specified by hedgehog genes. It is striking how few signaling molecules animals use in development. This is because the same molecules can be employed again and again, as cells will respond differently according to their genetic constitution and developmental history.

Summing up, I have to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. It broadened my horizons in a field that I had little knowledge in. I must admit that in the beginning it was kind of hard to comprehend and to eventually accept the idea that all animal species and me share the same genes. But I guess we are all a part of nature sharing pretty much the same basic needs such as nourishing, thirst, sleep, breathing so what makes us any different from the other species of this planet?

Our team has the area of Raval. In this link you can find the maps of our powerpoint presentation.

minification: the sense of transforming, adapting and realizing data, networks, flows and materiality in a smaller scope

widgification: blend of components, networks and structures of graphical user interfaces (computing) that the users interact with
multi-scalar: condition of being able to function, exist, evolve, transform, adapt and interact in multiple magnitudes
macropancture: thorough and detailed insertion into tissues, structures, networks, meanings of large scope
consumology: term that defines the act of using organisms, medias, networks, flows, materiality and interacting with them
open media: an accesible, reseptive, transmitive format of mass communicative network
time compaction (or expansion): the fluctuation of the sense of time relating to the quality and cuantity of data received

microstructurfication: blend of nano-components that form an autonomous and independent network
miniactivation: a sequence of events and actions that occur in a short and limited period of time

Attached you can find photos of the process of assembling the tube, photos of the final model and a manual of instructions.
manualofinstructions.jpg,

These are the three A0 that you requested for the second presentation. As a group we prepered an A0 for the model, an A0 for the diagram and an A0 for the photographs. During the last week we decided to focus on the economical percpective of our topic and try to form some kind of diagrams that reflect the data that we collected. Attached you can see the three A0 in a smaller size. a0-price-chart.jpg, a0-diagram.jpg, a0-model.jpg

Today during the class we discussed about the topic that would be interesting for us to explore. We came up with the term “minification”. We also thought about some terms that could be related to this main topic such as widgification, multi-scalar, macropuncture, comsumology, open media, time compaction (or expansion). For the next class each of us will attempt to define these terms and invent 2-4 more, aiming at a new group discussion that will hopefully help us to define more acurately the term “minification”.