So, I’ve been on the naughty list for the last couple of days. Yes, I’ve
been writing and posting my blog posts, but I haven’t been doing it the way I
should be. Take today’s post for example. Cupcake gave me the topic, mutants,
yesterday after I posted my discussion on April Fool’s Day. But, I’m just now (at
8:13 pm) sitting down to write today’s post. This means I’m going to be behind
on getting my stats posted and that will mean a wide number of other things
which I really don’t want to talk about here. It’s all just prattle.
Anyway, the topic is mutants, and I suppose I should be able to come up
with a fairly decent post about mutants, mainly because I feel like one half of
the time. Lol.
Cupcake was watching an episode of Face
Off (SyFy reality tv show about practical effects make up and design) and
the topic of the contest for that episode was mutants. Each of the contestants
designed their own mutants and so on and so forth, the rest doesn’t matter so
far as I’m concerned. What does is the concept, the question the challenge
raises: What is a mutant and what does that mean to you?
It’s kind of a double question, but a good one none the less.
There are a couple of things that come to mind when I hear the word
mutant. Most of those are pop culture references, and I think maybe one of them
comes from scientific fact. That’s the one I want to talk about first.
As far as I can tell (and this is without me checking Google) a
mutation is often an irregularity or abnormality n the genetic sequence. This irregularity
often causes problems with the individual born with that mutation. An example
of this could be a deer born with five legs, or it may have three eyes. And,
there are other more common mutations. People are born blind, or they’re born
with Down syndrome or something similar. This is and isn’t a mutation, it’s
more like a birth defect caused by an irregularity in the genetic sequence…
which is exactly what I just said to define a mutation…
Herm.
Mutations are also highly useful when it comes to evolution. First,
there were a lot of brown bears, because there were a lot of temperate forests
between ice ages. But, when the world got cold again, the ice caps spread and a
lot more of the earth became white. Brown bears had trouble with getting food
because their prey could see them miles away and get the hell out. Then there
was a mutation. A bear was born with white fur (technically a polar bear’s fur
is clear because it lacks any sort of pigment) and was better suited to
sneaking up on its prey. This made the bears with white fur continue to survive
and breed and be born, and the brown bears in the polar area slowly died out. (And,
yes, I totally just stole that example from Cosmos.)
Now, the other references I can think of are right up Face Off’s alley. It’s the X-men from Marvel Comics. And, the
mutant bug movies of the 1950’s. And, I’ll leave you with what I think is the
most famous pop culture mutant of all time:
Ryan
4-2-14
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