Imperfection by Telmo Pievani

Author:Telmo Pievani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIT Press

Small changes modifying the distribution in time and space of the same structures are sufficient to affect deeply the form, the functioning and the behaviour of the final product—the adult animal. It is always a matter of using the same elements, of adjusting them, of altering here or there, of arranging various combinations to produce new objects of increasing complexity. It is always a matter of tinkering.

So in the name of tinkering and the redundant elements that permit it, we have a possible fifth law of imperfection: excess, if it can be tolerated, is a source of change because evolution involves the transformation of the possible. Let us call it the law of the onion, in honor of the humble and versatile bulbous plant that, when it comes to genes, outclasses us by a long way. Let us finish with the proclamation of the law by Jacob (1977) himself, made during a memorable lecture in Berkeley, California, because no one could put it any better:

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