The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Protein flaws responsible for complex life, study says

    By cmaukonen on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 9:37am |

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13445951

    Tiny structural errors in proteins may have been responsible for changes that sparked complex life, researchers say.

    A comparison of proteins across 36 modern species suggests that protein flaws called "dehydrons" may have made proteins less stable in water.

    This would have made them more adhesive and more likely to end up working together, building up complex function.

    The Nature study adds weight to the idea that natural selection is not the only means by which complexity rises.

    Natural selection is a theory with no equal in terms of its power to explain how organisms and populations survive through the ages; random mutations that are helpful to an organism are maintained while harmful ones are bred out.

    Then it IS true.

    Comments

    I had to skip two mealtimes as I slogged through the Obey inspired dialogue on artificial intelligence.  It seemed to my poor mind like an exotic banquet where too many of the dishes served were still moving, reminiscent of the dinner scene in the second Indiana Jones movie.  Here you have presented the entire subject in a bite sized, ready to eat Happy Meal of understanding.  It is all about accident, random mutation and chance.  The universe is like some giant McDonalds outlet where billions of Big Macs are produced in boring repitition until through the miracle of the “protein flaw” every once in a great while a beef patty hops off the grill and pursues its own destiny.

     Yummy post.


    by LarryH on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 12:19pm

    Yeah, but then you're a Random Mutant, Larry, so...did you hop off the grill?


    by we are stardust on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 12:29pm

    I prefer to think of myself as an inspired and inspiring bacon cheeseburger that took the road less traveled.

    (OK fell on the floor).


    by LarryH on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 12:41pm

    Flukes?  Seriously?  We are all flatworms?  

    I'd rather be a hologram.


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 1:46pm

    According to the String Theory people, we inhabit a N-Dimensional universe.


    by cmaukonen on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 3:38pm