Biological complexity: managing cellular oxygen levels (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 08, 2019, 18:09 (1658 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTES: "Through their separate contributions, the three scientists uncovered how cells sense and respond to the availability of oxygen, that key ingredient complex organisms need to move, build tissues and perform the diverse jobs that keep them alive.
"When oxygen surges or plummets, cells have to adapt their metabolism accordingly — and quickly."

"Discovering the hypoxia-inducible-factor pathway answered the fundamental question of how cells adapt to less oxygen or to low oxygen, and ultimately how it allows cells, tissues and our human body to adapt. It’s a vital piece of fundamental research that’s got huge implications.'”

DAVID: Any time there is a cascade of critical control reactions it must be developed all at once, never by hunt and peck. Only design at the beginning will work.

dhw: With all forms of adaptation, the cells must find a way to adjust themselves, and if we take the example of bacteria, we know that millions of them may die before the correct balance is found. No doubt if organisms were once subjected to sudden changes in the oxygen level, there would have been millions of deaths until the cell communities found a way to correct the balance.

You are totally missing the point. Look back into the article. This is not environmental oxygen levels and use. Remember yourself in Cricket. At bat your body is tense but still. Everything is well-oxygenated. You hit and start running. Now certain areas (arm and leg muscles) need more oxygen. Other now will lack oxygen unless critical shifts in cells isn't accomplished.

dhw: Once the solution has been found, it will be passed on, and just as bacteria will then have a defence against the latest threat, so too will multicellular organisms inherit the new patterns that enable them to survive. What the scientists are now observing may have been at the cost of countless deaths until the hectic “hunting and pecking” produced the desired result.

Not a problem for single cellular organisms, but a coordinated system for multicellular organisms with many moving parts required for their development, and therefore must be totally in place as they developed. Only design fits.

Under "Magic embryology":

QUOTE: "'We are just beginning to understand how the 'software' of embryonic development (the electrical patterns) are created and interpreted by the 'hardware' (the cells' genes and proteins) to enable the cells to cooperate and organize into a highly-patterned body," said Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology in the School of Arts & Sciences and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts."

DAVID: Embryos just don't grow. They are design coded to follow designed plans electrically laid out.

dhw: The emphasis always seems to be on cooperation, with the cells creating and organizing patterns which must at one time have been new to life’s history. Once a pattern is successful, it survives. Every single one divinely preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago, or separately designed by the cells themselves, using their perhaps God-given intelligence in response to new challenges and new opportunities?

This is a pattern with a future goal of construction. What is laid out in the total embryo is a guide to that future result. Each cell must follow instructions and do its singular part to follow the plan which is set up in advance to achieve the goal. Under your view I don't know how a new horse will appear after the egg is fertilized. The cells are programmed to follow the electrical patterns. They do not set up the pattern.