Biological complexity: phase separation (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, November 10, 2022, 12:22 (744 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: How do the right proteins organize themselves in a sea of fluid swarming with millions of molecules? Do they bump into each other by chance, or does the cell actively organize its fluid space to bring the correct partners together?
[…]
DAVID: Of course, a science article cannot allow God to put His toe in. Those molecules somehow know exactly what to do in the soup.

dhw: Yes, they do. And I don’t know why a theist shouldn’t accept the possibility that his all-powerful God, who has endowed humans with the intelligence to organize their own forms of cooperation etc., might endow micro-organisms with the intelligence to organize THEIR forms of cooperation.

DAVID: Evidence of intelligent actions takes us to their DNA and related factors, all of which I think was coded by God.

I’m not sure whether “coded” means that 3.8 billion years ago your God gave precise instructions for every form of cooperation, or that he pops in to change the code whenever it’s necessary, or that he gave organisms the ability to design their own ways to cooperate. Perhaps you could be a little more precise?

dhw: Two tiny tales for you:
One day, Pete Opossum spied a dead opossum in the distance. A predator approached the dead body, took one look, said “Yuk!” and walked away. The next day, Pete saw a predator before it saw him. There was no escape route. It meant certain death, unless...maybe you can guess the rest.
One day God, who has the whole world (even universe) to watch over, spotted Pete Opossum and a predator in the wilds of North America. As for some unknown reason Pete’s individual survival was crucial to God’s plan for all humans and their ecosystems, he whispered in fluent Opossumese: “Lie down, Pete, and pretend you’re dead.” And Pete did lie down, and thus he was saved.
I wonder which of these tales tickles your fancy.

DAVID: You are a great author!

Thank you. Which of the two tales do you think is more likely?

Quorum sensing: how it works in bacteria and viruses

No further comment needed.