robin at cco.caltech.edu (Robert C. Colgrove) writes:
>aroger at ac.dal.ca writes:
>I seem to be evolving a role as group zealot alarm.
>As I've said about previous citations of Gould, Dawkins, Margulis, Wilson, etc.
>These are interesting, thoughtful and important works but one should not
>confuse them with balanced discussions of the subject.
>Like the others on this list, Cavalier-Smith has long been associated
>with certain firmly held idiosyncratic positions like the clay-theory
>for the origin of Life and the conviction that that selective pressures
>control genome size. These are distinclty minority opinions and not
I'm quite possibly wrong, but I think you are merging Cairns-Smith
(clay biogenesis) with Cavalier-Smith (genome size, organelle evelution,
protists, introns late). But your point about Cavalier-Smith is well put --
he is quite unafraid to put forward and defend heterodox theories.
Keith Robison
Harvard University
Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology
Department of Genetics / HHMI
krobison at nucleus.harvard.edu
