Pages

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Essentials: Homology (Not Techmology – That’s a Different Subject)

An analogy explains one thing by showing how it is like another.  For example DNA is like an instruction book for building living things. DNA isn’t really a book, it is a molecule, but equating it with an instruction book makes it easier to understand the concept.  Learning and communicating science is full of analogies because comparing complex concepts to every day experiences makes them more accessible. Analogies don’t necessarily show a real connection between the things in comparison but they show how they are similar.  
There is another type of comparison in biology called homology. Homology doesn’t illustrate similarities in functionality by comparing the unfamiliar to the familiar it actually shows how things are the same when their function is different. Where analogies are illustrative of function homologies demonstrate actual similarities between organisms that appear diffierent.
Analogy shows how different things are similar.

Homology shows how things that appear completely different are actually the same. 

No comments:

Post a Comment