Irreducible complexity: mitotic spindle orientation (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 19:58 (3239 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The Wash Post is now touting this as the cause of multicellularity!-https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/11/startling-new-discovery-6...-I will cherry pick:-" Thanks to this mutation — which was not solely responsible for the leap out of single-cellular life, but without which you, your dog and every creature large enough to be seen without a microscope might not be around — cells were able to communicate with one another and work together.” (My bold)-Instead of working as enzymes (proteins that facilitate reactions inside the cell) the proteins were now what's known as an interaction domain. They could communicate with and bind to other proteins (my bold), a useful skill for cells that have decided to trade the rugged individualist life for the collaboration of a group. In the wild world of pre-complex life, this development was orders of magnitude better than Twitter for getting organisms organized. Every example of cells collaborating that has arisen since (my bold) — from the trilobites of 500 million years ago to the dinosaurs, woolly mammoths and you — probably relied on it or some other similar mutation." (David's bold)-David's comment: I'm sure this mutation was very important but look at the bolded comment above. Always overoptimistic. It undoubtedly required more than just this.

And they have said so (“which was not solely responsible...”). Nevertheless, the pattern they are drawing attention to is that of individual cells communicating and collaborating. You will no doubt say it was all preprogrammed, but communication and collaboration are acts that suggest autonomous decision-making. Just another piece in the jigsaw that makes up the intelligent cell!