Natures wonders: artic bacteria hook onto ice (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, November 17, 2016, 12:25 (2926 days ago) @ David Turell

David’s comment: Note the molecule has potent antifreeze properties. Frozen bacteria can't stay alive. Then think about the anchor hook. it had to be designed before the bacteria went to the Arctic with its dual properties. Not by chance mutations. That had to travel there after appropriate preparation. Could single celled animals foresee what kind of climate they were getting into? No way.

dhw: I may have missed something here, but please tell me how you know the original bacteria travelled to the frozen Arctic. How do you know that these particular bacteria are not the descendants of those who lived there before the Arctic froze? And that when it did, the bacteria at the time did what bacteria have always done since the beginning of life: they adapted to the new conditions? No “went to”, no “chance mutations”, no “travel there”, no “foresee”. Just intelligent organisms that work out their own ways of survival when conditions change.

DAVID: Good point, since we know palm trees once grew in the Arctic. What you are proposing then is the bacteria invented antifreeze when they had to and put a hook on it to handle the ice connection. Brilliant design by brainless animals, or by a controlling mind, God. Take your choice.

That is precisely what I am proposing, and it lies at the heart of the claims made by Shapiro and Co that “we have a great deal to learn about chemistry, physics and evolution from our small, but very intelligent, prokaryotic relatives.” However, please do not take that as an exclusion of God, as you so often do. If God exists, then he would have invented their intelligence.