19th April 2006, 5:51 PM
That's why they are still experimenting with it, to find out what purpose it all has, and so far there do seem to be large chunks that have simply been "carried over" all this time but serve no purpose, or parts that are simply badly coded that could be coded better. What's the point in code that turns off a gene that turns off another when you could just get rid of both?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)