"Did the code and means of translation it appear simultaneously in evolution? It seems almost incredible that any such coincidences could have occurred, given the extraordinary complexities of both sides and the requirements that they be coordinated accurately for survival. By a pre-Darwinian (or a skeptic of evolution after Darwin) this is a puzzle surely would have been interpreted as the most powerful sort of evidence for special creation." *C. Haskins, "Advances and Challenges in Science" in American Scientist 59 (1971), pp. 298.
“Certain physical limits seem inescapable. In approximately 50,000 years, water alone strips bases from the DNA...
Oxygen also contributes to the destruction of DNA. Even in ideal conditions – in the absence of water and oxygen and at low temperature – background radiation must finally erase all genetic information.”
*Scientific American, 11/93, p. 92
Dr. D. E. Hull in "Nature", "The physical chemist guided by the approved principles of chemical thermodynamics in kinetics cannot offer any encouragement to the biochemist who needs an ocean full of organic compound to form even lifeless co-asevate [blob of goo]."
"The code is meaning unless translated. The modern cell's translations amchinery consists of at least fifty macromolecular compoents which are themselves encoded in DNA [!]; the code cannot be trnslated otherwise than by products of translation. It is the Modern expression of omne vivum ex ovo ['every living thing comes from an egg']. When and how did this circle become closed? It is exceedingly difficult to imagine." *J. Monod, Cahnce and Necessity (1971), p. 143
"The information content of amino acid seguences cannot increase until a genetic code with an adapter function has appeared. Nothing which even vaguely resembles a code exists in the physio-chemical world. One must conclude that no valid scientific explantion of the origin of life exists at present." *H. Yockey, "Self Organization Origin of Life Scenarios and information Theory". in Journal of Theoretical Biology 91 (1981), p. 13.
"Cells and organisms are also informed [intelligently designed and operated] life-supported systems. The basic compoent of any informed system is its plan. Here, argues the creationist, an impenetrable circle excludes the evolutionist. Any attempt to form a model or theory of the evolution of the genetic code is futile because that code is without function unless, and until, it is translated, i.e., unless it leads to the synthesis of proteins. But the machinery by which the cell translates the code consists of about seventy compoents which are themselves the product of code." *Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 147 [emphasis his] .
RNA
"The code in the gene (which is DNA, of course) is used to construct a messenger RNA molecule in which is encoded the message necessary to determine the specific amino acid sequence of the protein.
"The cell must synthesize the sub-units (nuleotides) for the RNA (after first synthesizing the individual bases and the ribose). The cell must synthesize the sub-units, or amino acids, which are eventually polymerized to form the protein. Each amino acid must be activated by an enzyme specific for that amino acid-s-RNA complexes are used to form a protein. Other enzymes and key molecules are required for this.
"During all of this, the complex energy-producing apparatus of the cell is used to furnish the energy required for the many syntheses." Duane T. Gish, "DNA: Its History and Potential, "in W.E. Lemmerts (ed.), Scientific Studies in Special Creation (1971), p. 213.
"In bacteria, for example, Jacob and Monod demostrated a control system that operates by switching off 'repressor' molecules, i.e., unmasking DNA at the correct 'line number' to read off the correct (polypeptide) subroutines. With eukaryotes [a common type of bateria], Brittenand and Davidson have tentatively suggested that 'sensor genes' react to an incoming stimulus and cause the production of RNA. This, in turn activates a 'producer gene', m-RNA is synthesized and the required protein eventually assembled as a ribosome. Many DNA base sequences may thus be involved, not in protein or RNA production, but in control over that production--in switching the right sequences on or off at the right time." *Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 124.
"Scientists have not been able able to cause amino acids in water to join together to form proteins. The energy-requiring chemicals reactions that join amino acids are reversible and do not occur spontaneously in water. However, most scientists no longer argue that the first proteins assembled spontaneously. Instead, they now tell us that the initial macromolecules were composed of RNA, and that RNA later catalized the formation of proteins." George B. Jojnson, Peter H. Raven, Biology, Principles& Exploration, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1996, p. 235.
"...water greatly interfers with the linking oa amino acids and neucleotides into chains, a crucial step in the origin of life." Iris Fry, The Emergence of Life on Earth, 2000, p. 245.
"...no one has yet succeeded in creating RNA." Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth, Why Complex Life is Uncommon inthe Universe, 2000, p. 65.
"Though a few organic substances--for instance, certain simple amino acids--can form relatively easily under prebiotic conditions, other biochemicals building blocks, such as nuleotides and lipids, require for their synthesis a 'real factory'...The synthesis of these substances invlolves a series of reactions, each reaction following the previous one in utmost accuracy." Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth, Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, 2000, p. 63.
"The machine, dubbed Blue Gene, will be turned loose on a single problem. The computer will try to model the way human protein folds into a particular shape that gives it it's unique biological properties." Justin Gillis, The Sunday Oregonian, June 4 2000, A5.
"To make proteins, agents known a ribosomes connect amino acids into long strings. These strings loop and fold around each other in a variety of ways. However, only one of these many ways will allow the protein to function properly." November 2001, IBMResearch News, October 1 2001.
Computer ( one quadrillion operations per second ) running 24/7 will take, "about one year to simulate the complete folding of a typical ptotein." http://www.research.ibm.com/bluegene/press_release.html. Robert F. Service, Science, 12/17/99, p. 2250. A living cell performs the task in less then a second.
"...newly minted proteins contain an amino acid string that determines their eventual home." Tom A. Rapoport, Science News, 10/16/99, Vol. 156 Issue 16, p. 246 See also Britannica Biography Collection, Guenter Blobel.
"Misplacing a protein is more serious than loosing a letter, however. There are diseases where proteins are mistargeted in Cells." Rapaport, Science News, 10/16/99, Vol. 156 Issue 16. p. 246. See also Britannica Biography Collection, Guenter Blobel.
The production of every individual protein is, and must be, turned on and off at just the right moments. Susan Aldridge, The Thread of Life, The Story of Genes and Genetic Enginerring, Cambridge Universtiy Press, 1996, p. 47-53.
Lipids (form two layer membrane) are only formed by living cells. Bruce Alberts, Essential Cell Biology, An Introduction to Molecular Biology of the Cell, 1998, p. 348, 363.
"A living cell is a self-reproducing system of molecules held inside a container. The container is the plasma membrane - a fatty film so thin and transparent that it cannot be seen directly in the light microscope. It is simple in construction, being based on a sheet of lipid molecules....Although it serves as a barrier to prevent the contents of the cell from escaping and mixing with the surrounding medium...the plasma membrane does much more than that. Nutrients have to pass inward across it if the cell is to survive and grow, and waste products have to pass outward. Thus the membrane is penetrated by highly selective channels and pumps, formed from protein molecules, that allow specific substances to be imported while others are exported." Bruce Albert, Essential Cell Biology, 1998, p. 347.
The DNA of a bactera contains as much information as a 1000 page book! Essential Cell Biology, p. 347, 356-357.
"By information, I mean a message that conveys meaning, such as a book of instructions....Information is not matter, though it is imprinted on matter....Instructions in the fertlized egg control embryonic development from the beginning, and direct it to a specific outcome." Philip Johnson, The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism, 2000, p. 123,134.
"There is no known natural law through which matter can give rise to information, neither is there any physical process or material phenomenon known that can do this." Werner Gitt, In the Beginning Was Information, 1997, p. 79. Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmrU_SjUVno
Clay that colud produce a simple RNA, capable of making copies of itself, would have been more intelligent than all of today's origin of life scientists put together. They can't produce any RNA at all. Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownie, Rare Earth, Why ComplexLife is Uncommom in the Universe, 2000, p. 65.
"More important, our knowledge of past civilizations provided by archeologists would be in jeopardy. The supposed "artifacts" might be, after all, the results of unknown natural causes. Cave paintings, for example...may not be the result of early humans...Indeed, excavated ancient libraries could not be trusted to contain the works of intelligent men and women." Charles B. Thaxton, In Pursuit of Intelligent Causes," Origins & Designs, Summer 2001, p. 28-29.
Information in both DNA and in 'primitive cells takes up the least space possible. Andrzej Stasiak and John H. Maddocks, "Best Packing in Proteins and DNA, "Nature, Vol. 406, July 20, 2000, p. 251-252.
After a number of intelligent scientists had worked for many years developing ever better microfilm they fit the entire Bible on one 32 X 33 mm film. Amazing! However, that same space covered with DNA would hold information equivalent to 7.7 million Bibles! Werner Gitt, In the Beginning Was Information, 1997, p. 192-1294. Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmrU_SjUVno .
Definition of science by Kansas state guide lines - "The human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us." Peter Keeting, "God and Man in OZ" George, October 2000, p. 87.
"...origin of life research consists in looking for a naturalistic alternative to the idea of creation of life by a designer." Iris Fry, TheEmergence of Life on Earth, 2000, p. 184.
"The other important requirement for the orgin of life is plenty of time. The events necessary for the beginning of life were extremely unlikely." K. Arms and P. Camp, Biology, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1979, p. 156.
"The time with which we have to deal with is of the order of two billion years....Given so much time the 'impossible' becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs miricles." George Wald, "The Origin of Life," in The Physics and Chemistry of Life, 1955, p. 12.
Fossils "...look identical to bacteria still on Earth today." Ward, Brownlee, Rare Earth, Why Complex Life is Uncommon in theUniverse, p. 57.