Someone, a Christian doctor friend who was my former medical colleague asked me if I could elaborate a little more on how the smallest life form came into existence into other bigger species of life during Creation after I wrote this article:
Creation or Evolution? The Bible vs. Science here:
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=evolution
and on:
The Spark of Life: From Birth - A Journey till Death here:
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=spark+of+life
Here’s briefly my answer:
The smallest life forms are the viroids containing less than 10,000 atoms, exclusively nucleic acids unlike viruses which also have a protein coat besides their single strand of RNA either a linear or a closed circular geometry. Sometimes viruses may also be a strand of DNA. The first free-living viroids was only a few hundred nucleotides long
The next smallest cell-like living organism are the pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLO) composed of about 50 million atoms
The simplest one-cell organism is far more complex than the precision-made watches. The pocket watches do not spontaneously self-assemble themselves. They obviously require a watch-maker. Neither do atoms and molecules fall together on their own to create life. There must be a designer and a creator behind to put them together before pumping life into them.
The origin of life 4 billion years ago remains a mystery despite several theories being forwarded. How did the first organic molecules dissolved in the primitive oceans manage to assemble themselves into the earliest ancestors of the DNA, the master molecules of life? Even if they did by random chance, these early molecules still would not sing the music of life in them as much as a the most precision watch would still not tick with life had the watch maker not wind them up
The nucleic acids that make up the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are the information-carrying molecules of the cell. They direct the process of protein synthesis, and the enzymes produced. They also determine the inherited characteristics of every living thing.
All life on Earth is made from organic molecules. There are tens of billions of organic molecules known. The list of organic molecules known is so huge that they are contained in the ‘Beilstein’ a German compendium in 28 volumes, the largest database in the field of organic chemistry covering the scientific literature from 1771 to the present. It contains information on millions of chemical reactions and substances from original scientific publications
However, only about 50 of them such as proteins, enzymes and hormones are needed and used for life activities. The proteins control cell chemistry, and the nucleic acids carry the hereditary instructions. Enzymes work on orders of the nucleic acids of the DNA.
All living things on Earth are made of these nucleic acids that instruct how each species should be different from each other as much as an automobile manufacturer instructs how each car should be made into different models. But they all take the same journey in life from birth to death as described in:
“The Spark of Life: From Birth - A Journey till Death”
During the evolution of life on Earth a lot of changes took place in the DNA, blueprint of life through mutations for the next generations to be better adapted.
A mutation is a change in the nucleotide copied in the next generation. Mutation is a random nucleotide change often coding into existence non-functional proteins and enzymes. However, in the event of a very small chance an error is made, DNA polymerases are kicked in to erase the error to ensure accurate and efficient replication of the genome in order to ensure the maintenance of the genetic information and its faithful transmission through generations. A small beneficial mutant nucleotide is only ten-million cm across.
In the process of evolution as time went on through millions of years mutation got better and better with less and less errors as if the craftsmanship of a potter improving his skills in making potteries and porcelain figurines with time and discarding the older models into extinction as described in “Creation or Evolution? The Bible vs. Science”
As mutation got better and better with less and less errors in the earlier pre-life molecules, they created better molecules with specializations till they form the first plant cells – chloroplast that are capable of photosynthesis changing the carbon dioxide rich primordial atmosphere into an oxygen-rich one for animal life to be evolved after the plants. The change in the early atmosphere from a hydrogen and carbon dioxide enveloped one into an oxygen-rich sky was 99 % was due to the early blue and green algae bringing in photosynthesis.
600 million years ago, the blue-green algae flooded the oceans. Once oxygen became available, air-breathing animals became possible. 100 million years later (500 – 542 million years ago) the trilobites dominated the ocean floors
The trilobite is a group of extinct fossil arthropods easily recognized by their distinctive three-lobed, three-segmented form. Trilobites, exclusively marine animals, first appeared at the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 542 million years ago, when they dominated the seas.
Once oxygen was made available through photosynthesis by the algae, trees and plants animals made use of the oxygen and food available for energy and reproduction. It was the mitochondrion in those membrane-bound cell organelles that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions. They do this by combining food with oxygen. Initially, chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) till oxygen is available to change them back to ATP after the energy is released.
It was not until a sexual companion was created to introduce sexual production some two billion (2,000,000,000) years ago that more complex species of life emerged much faster.
It was during the Cambrian Period, the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon that lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago to the beginning of the Ordovician Period 485.4 million years ago that there was actually an explosion of life on Earth.
However, the early stage of evolution is excruciatingly slow through letter-by-letter changes in the alphabets of the ancestral DNA and their arrangements in unicellular organisms. A lot of mistakes were made during the evolutionary process through mutation. However, if any error was made, it is erased by the DNA polymerase.
The primary role of DNA polymerases is to accurately and efficiently replicate the genome in order to ensure the maintenance of the genetic information and its faithful transmission through generations. All the notes of life (DNA / RNA) must be put together in their correct sequence.
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