Laetoli footprints (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 16, 2010, 16:37 (5144 days ago) @ dhw
edited by unknown, Friday, April 16, 2010, 16:42


> One doesn't usually hear pin-point accuracy used as an argument in favour of chance and against design. The whole theory of Intelligent Design rests on intricate mechanisms that work. Antony Flew (who incidentally died on 8 April) was converted from radical atheism to belief in design because of the impossibility of believing that DNA could come about by chance.*** Any formulation of design will emphasize explicit phenomena that can be predicted with 100% accuracy. Imagine the effects if the Earth went out of orbit, or the sun became unstable, or sperm ceased to fertilize eggs. That life and our universe are a mixture of the predictable and the unpredictable is something I'm sure we agree on, but I really can't see the logic of claiming that what is predictable provides evidence of chance as opposed to design. However, I don't know enough about the MW and CH hypotheses to debate them with you. I only know that there is no consensus among scientists, which suggests that you'll continue to keep me company on the fence. 
> 
> *** I've just read David's post and the article he has recommended. Both he and it make this point much more convincingly than I can.-Here is more evidence of how complicated the DNA code mechanism is controlled. In non-coding DNA are 'enhancers' which control gene transcription by rounding up appropriate molecules to active the gene. Complexer and complexer:-Molecular Biology: 
Remote Enhancement
Helen Pickersgill - 
Rescuing spa function by moving it closer.
CREDIT: SWANSON ET AL., DEV. CELL 18, 359 (2010)- 
 -The temporal and cell type...specific regulation of gene expression relies in part on enhancers, which are noncoding regions of the genome that control tissue-specific expression of a gene sometimes located hundreds of kilobases away. Enhancers recruit regulatory proteins to decondense chromatin and promote the assembly of transcription machinery at genes. Swanson et al. have dissected the 350-bp sparkling (spa) enhancer that controls expression of the dPax2 gene, which specifies cone cell fate in the developing Drosophila eye. The spa enhancer has been shown to consist of 12 binding sites that recruit four regulatory proteins, the combination of which was thought to be sufficient to activate gene expression. By analyzing mutated versions of a synthetic spa enhancer in vivo, the authors have identified additional regulatory regions that are required for gene expression. One of these regions was required only when the enhancer was located 846 bp upstream of the promoter, but not at 121 bp, which suggests that other enhancers may contain similar hidden remote-control regions that work at a distance. Rearranging the regulatory elements in spa switched its cell-type specificity. Thus, both distance and the order of regulatory regions enable enhancers to fine-tune gene expression, revealing more levels of complexity than previously appreciated. -Dev. Cell 18, 359 (2010).-And don't forget the epigenetic mechanisms that cause rapid adaptation, much faster than Darwin's mistaken theory of ALWAYs tiny steps, even though HE KNEW of the jumps. -http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090604124021.htm