inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) (11/14/83)
A scientist whose name escapes me was interviewed last year on NPR's "All Things Considered" program. He described his studies and experimentation into a theory that hypothesizes a morphogenetic field. Does anyone know of this person's work, or other similar work? I seem to recall that his first name was 'Alan', and that he was British, but that's it. For general interest, and perhaps discussion here, the doctor's theory states that current genetic work does not answer all the questions of life replication. He agrees that DNA and RNA are the message carriers, but that there is nothing in the process as presently explained that answers questions like, "Why can there be such diverse manifestations of the same organism?" After all, when you see a person, you never mistake him for a squirrel, and yet no two individuals look exactly the same, nor are they ever a precise mix of parental qualities. He states that there is something that directs the DNA activity throughout gestation, and has hypothesized a field in the sense that gravity, electromagentism, and so forth have associated fields. This field apparently operates bi-directionally; that is, during gestation of, say a squirrel, it is emanating waves into the field, which in turn is detected and used by other gestating squirrels to direct the morphogenesis. Each species' field operates within different bands, or "frequencies", so that a squirrel does not receive the information carried by the human field. He even mentioned some laboratory experiments that tended to prove portions of the theory, but I've forgotten the details. I am not a geneticist, or even a scientist for that matter, so I may have terms and concepts balled around, but in general, that is the theory as I recall it. I was so intrigued by the science-fictionesque flavor that I want to read more, but have no idea even where to start looking in a library. Does anyone have further information? Thank you - Gary Benson John Fluke Mfg. Co. Everett, Wa, USA !fluke!inc