Prion Evolution
Jan. 4th, 2010 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaWell... I guess the creationists will be up in arms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8435320.stm
Prions are capable of adapting and evolving via protein folding and protein folding is how you get RNA and DNA.
I know. You imagine they'll just ignore the evidence as usual but... This is kind of the missing link between lifeless chemical reactions and living creatures.
We've been able to produce amino acids out of base chemicals for many decades now. If prion folding behavior can be decoded, we can make a synthetic environment to accelerate the process that compacts them into a structure like RNA or DNA and from there, you can get a completely man-made organism without borrowing pieces from anything else.
This is also potentially quite exciting for the development of self-replicating nano machines.
Hurray future!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8435320.stm
Prions are capable of adapting and evolving via protein folding and protein folding is how you get RNA and DNA.
I know. You imagine they'll just ignore the evidence as usual but... This is kind of the missing link between lifeless chemical reactions and living creatures.
We've been able to produce amino acids out of base chemicals for many decades now. If prion folding behavior can be decoded, we can make a synthetic environment to accelerate the process that compacts them into a structure like RNA or DNA and from there, you can get a completely man-made organism without borrowing pieces from anything else.
This is also potentially quite exciting for the development of self-replicating nano machines.
Hurray future!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-04 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-05 06:40 am (UTC)I guess the creationists will be up in arms.
Sadly, I'd wager they won't, because they won't even understand the significance of this. I forget where it was mentioned, but one of the problems is that presenting rational things to an extremist does no good because they don't value reason in the first place.
Reminds me of when Bill Nye pointed out the heresy that the moon is not made of glowing green cheese.
The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”
He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.
A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.
“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.
Still, awesomesauce on the Prions.