Natures wonders:fly traps (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:42 (4263 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Complex chemicals control plants' leaves that trap insects:-http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/scienceshot-snap-how-
carnivorous.html?ref=hp-Any just-so story as to how this developed?-1) God said, "Let there be flycatching sundews" and there were flycatching sundews. For although God's purpose was to create humans, flycatching sundews were also his purpose.-2) God preprogrammed the first living cells to pass on the blueprint for flycatching sundews. For although God's purpose was to create humans, flycatching sundews were also his purpose.-3) God saw a non-flycatching sundew and thought, "Although my purpose is to create humans, flycatching sundews are also my purpose." And thus did God fiddle with the non-flycatching sundew's genome so that it did become a flycatching sundew.-4) God invented a mechanism called "the intelligent genome". There was once a non-flycatching sundew with an especially intelligent genome which invented a flycatching process, whereby it turned into a flycatching sundew. Flycatching sundews have survived to this day, thus proving that God's purpose was to create flycatching sundews. (There was once a unilobite with an especially intelligent genome which invented a complex eye, whereby it turned into a trilobite, and for millions of years the trilobites survived. But then something nasty happened and there were no trilobites with genomes intelligent enough to adapt. And so they died out, thus proving that God's purpose was and was not to create trilobites.) -5) As in 4), except that the "intelligent genome" just happened to assemble itself by sheer luck, and has continued its experiments ever since, thus creating a higgledy-piggledy bush of extant flycatching sundews and extinct trilobites.-6) As in 4), except that the "intelligent genome" was assembled through experiments carried out by chemicals intelligently combining, just as their invention the cell later combined intelligently with other cells, thus creating a higgledy-piggledy bush of extant flycatching sundews and extinct trilobites. -And now, David, it's your turn to tell us a just-so story.