Researchers create functioning artificial proteins using nature's rules

Daily Scientific News | UT Southwestern Medical Center ^ | September 21, 2005

[Dimensio]

One implication of our work is that the evolutionary protein-design process may not be as complex as was previously thought." are not ID friendly.

A few may try to latch on with some out of context quotes. We've seen one or two examples here already. And there's always the "who is the rulemaker" equivocation fallacy that they can derive from the headline.

[PatrickHenry]

From the article:

All proteins are made up of 20 specific amino acids. Even for a small protein made up of 100 amino acids, the number of possible combinations of amino acids is staggering, many times more than the number of atoms in the known universe.

Before the creationists start drooling over that, I should point out that such "improbabilities" are quite common. For example, the sequence resulting from any particular shuffle of a deck of cards has the odds against it of 52! (that's 52 factorial), which is 8.06581752 x 10⁶⁷. That's a number far greater than the stars in the universe, currently estimated at 10²² stars. Yet, every time you shuffle the deck, you get a sequence of cards with those odds against it!

[js1138]

I suspect making proteins is more like knitting than making CPU chips.

[b_sharp]

"From the article:

"All proteins are made up of 20 specific amino acids. Even for a small protein made up of 100 amino acids, the number of possible combinations of amino acids is staggering, many times more than the number of atoms in the known universe.

"Before the creationists start drooling over that, I should point out that such "improbabilities" are quite common. For example, the sequence resulting from any particular shuffle of a deck of cards has the odds against it of 52! (that's 52 factorial), which is 8.06581752 x 1067. That's a number far greater than the stars in the universe, currently estimated at 1022 stars. Yet, every time you shuffle the deck, you get a sequence of cards with those odds against it!

Another point should be made that many if not most of those 100 amino acid sequences may be used by living organisms so its not just a case of only one possibility.

[The Shootist]

"So who made the rules?," is there a mathematician in the house to show some of the splendours of fractals?

The almighty's thumbprint. f(x) = x^2 - µ: Truly a thing of beauty.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for the ping, Civ.

It's quite fascinating.

They can use this to repair degenerated organs, eventually.

[SunkenCiv]

Recently there was a thread around here (?... or somewhere else?) regarding the possible future cloning of teeth for replacement dentition. And to think I was going to invest in some channellocks...