Posted on 07/18/2008 5:43:32 AM PDT by Soliton
Some bacterial cells can swim, morph into new forms and even become dangerously virulent - all without initial involvement of DNA. Yale University researchers describe July 18 in the journal Science how bacteria accomplish this amazing feat - and in doing so provide a glimpse of what the earliest forms of life on Earth may have looked like.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Life from non life ping!
Yes, now the new word is “morph.” We all descendantly, from these two meter backstoke bacteria, morphed into ourselves. LOL!
“We predicted that there would be an ancient ‘RNA city’ out there in the jungle, and we went out and found it,’’ Breaker said
Predictive ability of a theory is evidence that the theory is correct.
The RNA World (from 1974)
Virtually all biologists now agree that bacterial cells cannot form from nonliving chemicals in one step. If life arises from nonliving chemicals, there must be intermediate forms, “precellular life.” Of the various theories of precellular life, the most popular contender today is “the RNA world.”
RNA has the ability to act as both genes and enzymes. This property could offer a way around the “chicken-and-egg” problem. (Genes require enzymes; enzymes require genes.) Furthermore, RNA can be transcribed into DNA, in reverse of the normal process of transcription. These facts are reasons to consider that the RNA world could be the original pathway to cells. James Watson enthusiastically praises Sir Francis Crick for having suggested this possibility.
What the heck??? Where are the pictures of Adam and Eve?????
/s
RNA is still a complex compound, which has never been observed to form by inorganic means, AFAIK. Besides, even if RNA formed spontaneously, how would it suddenly become an enzyme? Enzymes are parts of the functional system of living cells. I.e. they are manufactured because they have a purpose. A “primordial soup” has no purpose.
If you are seeking truth, read this.
http://www.panspermia.org/rnaworld.htm
“An RNA-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme is the foundation of the entire RNA World hypothesis,” Robertson said. “With that, you would have an RNA capable of making copies of itself; mutations or errors in some copies would result in variations that would be acted on by Darwinian natural selection, and the molecules would evolve into bigger and better ribozymes. That’s what makes this structure so interesting.”
There is nothing in the article but a variety of competing theories. No evidence at all. In fact, the focus of the article is that genetic molecules did not form by random processes on earth, but were seeded here from somewhere else...a concept which conveniently displaces the mystery to some extraterrestrial place. This not science, it is really just a new form of creation myth.
Indeed many of the protein enzymes we have still contain a small RNA section where the action happens.
I'm sorry that I didn't explain better. The article I asked you to read was to put the article I posted in perspective. ID/Creationist say that a cell is "irreducibly complex" and couldn't have evolved from less complex forms. Sir Francis Crick, who discovered DNA, predicted that if evolution was correct that RNA working as an enzyme could self replicate. This was one year before RNA enzymes were actually discovered. Since then there has been an hypothesis that before cells, there was an RNA world. The problem was that no one had found the right Ribozyme. That is what the article is about. They have found it! We have moved the evolution debate one major step forward to solving the life from non-life riddle.
Only two nucleotides? That only provides 16 combinations! It will be interesting to see the further levels of regulation that this entails.
A-A
A-U
A-G
A-C
U-A
U-U
U-G
U-C
G-A
G-U
G-G
G-C
C-A
C-U
C-G
C-A
WOW. Sixteen master keys that together can fit any riboswitch lock?
You can see why those who don’t understand think that design is necessary. It is elegantly simple, even beautiful.
Crick was right again.
Post 16...:-)
The time had come to ask how the DNA→ RNA→ protein flow of information had ever got started. Here, Francis was again far ahead of his time. In 1968 he argued that RNA must have been the first genetic molecule, further suggesting that RNA, besides acting as a template, might also act as an enzyme and, in so doing, catalyze its own self-replication.
Why did they have belly buttons and why did Adam have nipples?
I have no issue with design in and of itself; I am a Christian and do believe the laws of the universe were designed by God. I object to the suggestion of I.D. proponents (”cdesign proponentists”) that the universe was incompetently designed such that the mechanism in place for the evolution of life was a tool ill suited for the purpose and needs to constantly be superseded by miraculous intervention.
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