Genetic Mutation

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2007

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss mutation in genetics and evolution. When lying mortally ill with cancer, the British geneticist J.B.S. Haldane penned the following lines: Cancer's a Funny Thing:I wish I had the voice of HomerTo sing of rectal carcinoma,Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked...Haldane knew better than most that many cancers, and many other diseases, are caused by genetic mutation. A mutation is an error in reproduction between one generation and the next as the copying mechanism that allows you to inherit your parent’s genes goes awry. Mutations are almost always bad news for the organism that suffers them and yet mutation is also a giver of life. Without it there would be no natural selection, no evolution and, arguably, no life on this planet. It’s not unreasonable to see life itself as a mutation and to understand this may also hold the key to aging and disease. It is, in the Darwinian view of life, the raw material of evolution.With Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics in the Galton Laboratory, University College London; Adrian Woolfson, lectures in Medicine at Cambridge University; Linda Partridge, Weldon Professor of Biometry at University College LondonTags

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
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0:49.1	Hello when he was mortally ill with cancer the British
0:51.9	geneticist jb. holBS Holden came up with the following gallant lines.
0:57.0	Cancer's a funny thing.
0:59.0	I wish I had the voice of Homer to sing of rectal carcinoma, which kills a lot more chaps in fact than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.
1:08.0	Professor Holden Newbet, Holden knew better than most that many cancers and many other diseases are caused by genetic mutation.
1:15.2	Indeed, to understand mutation fully may explain the ravages of illness and even unlock
1:20.9	the secrets of ageing. But mutation, so often a destroyer of life,
1:25.3	is also its creator. Without it, the variety of living things on earth simply wouldn't exist.
1:30.0	It is, in the Darwinian view of life the raw material of evolution.
1:34.0	With me to discuss mutation in genetics and evolution
1:37.0	a Steve Jones, professor of genetics in the Galton Laboratory University College London,
1:42.0	Adrian Wolfson, a molecular biologist who teaches medicine at Cambridge,
1:47.0	Walden Professor of Biometry at the University College London.
	...

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