Sunday, March 11, 2012

Scrabble Anyone?


Protein Formation has always fascinated me because of its detail and complexity. As a biology major, I could never fully wrap my head around how natural selection could develop something so specific and intricate, even over billions of years. The idea is a little like someone trying to win a game of Scrabble by pouring out the bag of letters over and over again until a word forms that's the language of the person doing the pouring. Then that same person keeps pouring out the bag again and again until they form a game of scrabble on the board that actually makes sense. Also, I was always confused by the fact that DNA can only be replicated through RNA, but RNA can only be made by DNA. To even make a protein, DNA must be read by RNA and then the RNA transcripted through ribosomal complexes made up of RNA and protein. The whole concept reminded me of the "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" question. One portion cannot be made without the other. However, the concept of intelligent design discussed in the movie, Darwin's Dilemma, made the whole process make sense. If something, or someone, had set the process of protein formation and DNA replication into motion, the DNA, RNA, and protein could all work together and depend on one another from the beginning. The language of the nucleotides could be designated and the whole process work together concisely. This would make much more sense, just as if the person playing scrabble stopped pouring out of the bag, and started purposefully arranging the letters on the board instead.

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