Introduction-- Footnotes

Oparin, A. I., 1938 The Origin of Life, Dover Publications, New York. Haldane, J. B. S, 1954 The Origin of Life, New Biology, 16:12-27. Darwin, Charles, 1871 letter to botanist Joseph Hooker. Woese, C, 1967 The Genetic Code, Harper and Row, New York Epstein, H. F. and Shakes, D. C., 1995 Caenorhabditis elegans: Modern Biological Analysis of an Organism. Academic Press, San Diego. Some scientists have proposed that one gene could code for more than one property, but that raises its own problems, since mutations in a gene would affect several properties (some possibly for the better, but some for the worse). That kind of overlap is fine for bacteria that need maximum metabolic efficiency, but for us mammals it would make evolution go far too slowly. Back Home