expressing the genes for it

[GoodTaste]

What does "it" in the phrase "expressing the genes for it" refer to? Does it refer back to "the coolest thing"?

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"What I think is the coolest thing about these arsenic-respiring microbes existing today in the ocean is that they are expressing the genes for it in an environment that is fairly low in arsenic," says Saunders.


"It opens up the boundaries for where we could look for organisms that are respiring arsenic, in other arsenic-poor environments."

Source: Science Alert https://www.sciencealert.com/evidence-of-arsenic-breathing-microbes-found-off-the-coast-of-mexico

 

[jutfrank]

it = breathing arsenic (or rather, the ability to breathe arsenic)

 

[GoodTaste]

it = breathing arsenic (or rather, the ability to breathe arsenic)

Yes. The logic is unambiguous. Did you simply follow the logic? Or did you simply follow the grammar to come to the conclusion?

 

[jutfrank]

Yes. The logic is unambiguous. Did you simply follow the logic? Or did you simply follow the grammar to come to the conclusion?

I understood the meaning, not the logic. I mean, 'logic' is not the right word. My understanding of the meaning comes from a range of different places, including the individual words used in the sentence (lexical meaning), the sentence as a semantic unit itself (sentence meaning), the syntactics of the sentence (grammar and reference), the relation of the sentence to the text (context), and my background knowledge of how the world works (schemata).