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Molecular
Machines By Thomas
F. Heinze More
and more evidence that God designed living things is constantly turning up as
microscopes and methods are being perfected. Among the most amazing of the
recent wonders are little machines called “molecular machines,” or “molecular
motors.” They are real machines found inside each cell of every living thing.
Their tiny moving parts are individual molecules designed to fit together and
work together. They do much of the work of every cell. Many people who want to
fire their Creator don’t know about them yet, but no cell could live without
them. They are so precise and efficient that scientists working in nanotechnology, the field of the very
small, are working hard trying to copy some of them. So
you won't think I am making this up, I will mention the one that you may have
heard about: a miniature motor which spins with almost perfect efficiency at
speeds variously reported from 17,000 to 100,000 RPMs.
Like a boat motor, it propels its owner, a single cell, through the water. Scientists
are discovering molecular machines in large numbers, but the ones I am
interested in are those that are absolutely essential to life. Since all
known machines are made by intelligent designers, the fact that there are many
machines that no cell could live without is evidence that living things had an
intelligent designer. Pumps Cells
would just be loose goo dissolving into the water if
they were not enclosed by membranes. That presents a problem: Even the simplest
cell must have nutrients if it is to live, but nutrients are too large to pass
through a cell's membrane. God’s solution: the membranes of even the simplest
cells contain machines: pumps made out of several different proteins folded
into complex shapes to work together. They recognize and pass the right
nutrients through the membrane and into the cell. A cell without machines that
pass nutrients through its membrane would starve to death. These
pumps, like all molecular machines, are made according to intelligent plans written
in the cell's information. Pumps that recognize and pass nutrients into the
cell don’t happen by accident, nor could they! People who lead our students to
believe that a first cell was put together by random chemical reactions with no
intelligent input deceive the students. Where do
proteins come from? All
the other machines we know of: cars, wheelbarrows, etc., are always made by
intelligent beings. With that in mind, let’s take the next step in our
consideration of the machines in living creatures. The parts of these molecular
machines are made of DNA, RNA and proteins. These basic chemical molecules of
life are so complex that none of them are ever formed in nature except by
already living cells. Evolutionists often try to make this seem unimportant by
pointing out simpler things that will form outside of cells: Amino acids,
water, and crystals are most often mentioned. Their
conclusion? "Cells were formed without a creator." That is as
foolish as pointing out that aluminum ore forms in nature and thinking you have
explained airplanes and helicopters. Simple chemicals do form by normal
chemical combinations outside of cells. DNA, RNA, and real proteins do not! Proteins
are made by living cells in molecular machines called ribosomes.
The ribosomes we know about are composed of three RNA
molecules and around 50 protein molecules folded to fit and work together. They
line up the left handed amino acids that will make up each protein in the order
specified by the cell's DNA, then the machines link the amino acids together
one after another like links in a chain. When finished, most proteins contain
from 100 to a few thousand amino acids chosen from 20 different varieties. As
each protein is being completed, an address label is added to guide it to the specific
place where it can do the job for which it was made. During the trip, it is
folded (often helped by another machine called a chaperone) so that when the
new protein arrives, it will fit very precisely with the other molecules with
which it must work. A cell’s function be impaired or destroyed if its proteins
are not made correctly, addressed correctly, and folded to fit, in addition,
mistakes often cause genetic diseases. Proteins
are the main ingredients of living things, so no cell could live without the
machines that produce its proteins. A
question for the skeptical: Can you think of anything less likely to have been
organized by unguided chance than the production of a protein followed by the
almost unbelievable series of steps that address it, deliver it and help it fit
with the other molecules with which it will work? Regulating
production Protein
making must be carefully regulated. Otherwise the machines would make too much
of one kind of protein, an easy one for example, and not enough of another. The
right proteins must be delivered to the right places in the right amounts or
the cell will die, so protein making had to be intelligently regulated from the
very first. One
molecular machine used in protein regulation uses specific stretches of DNA
called “regulatory DNA sequences” as a sort of a switch. The DNA, however,
cannot turn protein production on or off by itself. Each regulatory DNA
sequence works with a specific protein which has been folded to fit the correct
spot on the DNA. The protein works with the DNA to regulate the production of a
protein by switching the gene for that protein on and off at the right times.
No cell could exist if it were not able to regulate the production of its
chemicals. Reproduction Another
reason life could not have been started by a cell which generated spontaneously
without a Creator is that each cell must have a way to reproduce. If the “first
cell” did not have this ability already fully functional there could never have
been a second cell! After the first generation, new life would have become no
life. In
reproduction, when a cell divides, one copy of its DNA is passed on to its
offspring. There are several reasons that this is not easy. Perhaps the easiest
to understand is that the DNA’s two strands are long, thin, and tightly twisted
together like the strands of a rope. The DNA strands must be separated one from
the other at cell division to give one strand to each cell. How does one strand
get separated from the other when they are twisted tightly together? Among a
number of machines necessary for reproduction are DNA unwinding machines.
Without these and other machines that allow cell division, no “first cell”
could ever have produced a second cell. Question
for skeptics: “When you say that non living chemicals came together to form the
first living cell without need of intelligent design, did those chance chemical
reactions also form all of the molecular machines that are essential for
reproduction?” Tying up the loose ends In
this article, I have chosen a few easy to understand examples of the cell’s
many molecular machines: $ pumps that bring
nutrients through the membrane and into the cell $ machines that make
proteins $ regulatory machines $ unwinding machines. If
even one of these had been left out, no “first cell” could have lived or
reproduced! Since no machine has ever been known to come together without a
designer/creator, the required presence of a good number of machines from the
very first is powerful evidence that living things had an intelligent and
capable Creator. The
impact of this evidence is growing as new molecular machines, complete with
moving parts, are discovered every year. In fact, microscopes so powerful they
permit scientists to study cell parts that were previously invisible show up
previously undreamed of layers of complex details. In
contrast, place even the sharpest point, blade, or whatever man can make under
the microscope, and turn up the magnification. The higher the magnification,
the cruder it looks. While each jump ahead in magnification shows up more
evidence for an intelligent Designer/Creator, no evidence has been uncovered
that dead chemicals ever came together to spontaneously produce life. Whenever
I mention this, skeptics protest that I just don’t understand how simple the
first cell really was. A really simple first life is a prediction of their
theory, yet each advance in making microscopes reveals another layer of
complexity that no cell could live without. The tiny moving parts of molecular
machines are but one example. What will future research reveal? $ Their prediction: A way
to make a cell so simple that undirected chemical reactions could have put it
together. $ My prediction: The
number of known complex parts and functions that no cell could live without
will continue to increase. Books by Thomas F. Heinze Click
here to
get discount ordering information. |
