Chase writes:
Every individual adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine that make up the Deoxyribonucleic Acid in your body is directly inherited from those two individuals that made you.
I'm not sure how to read this. If he is arguing that all my nucleobases come from my parents (i.e. are not synthesised in my body), then he is certainly wrong. How could the single oocyte have enough nucleobases to supply all the trillions of cells in my body?
But perhaps he is arguing about the 'order' of those nucleobases, which leads me to my next point:
Coragyps writes:
No. Each of us has maybe 100 (biologists?? what's the accepted number?) of those that are neither Mom's nor Pop's.
Yeah, it's about 100 germline mutations. But most cells will have many more somatic mutations. Regardless, it is very, very likely untrue that 'every individual' nucleobase in any cell in my body is the inherited from my parents.
"And, lo, a great beast did stand before me, having seven heads, and on each head were there seven mouths, and in each mouth were there seventy times seven teeth. For truly there were seven times seven times seven times seventy teeth, meaning there were. . . okay, carry the three, adding twenty. . . plus that extra tooth on the third mouth of the sixth head. . . Well, there were indeed a great many teeth" - The Revelation of St. Bryce the Long-Winded
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