Scientists Marvel at Enzyme Efficiency (what should take billions of years, done in miliseconds)

CEH ^ | November 11, 2008

[GodGunsGuts]

Many chemical reactions occur from simple collisions. One atom may have spare electrons, another may need them. Attracted by each other’s valences, the atoms collide and bonds form. Not so with biological enzymes: these molecular machines owe their efficiency to their three-dimensional shapes. Made up of hundreds of amino acids, enzymes have “active sites” where precise interactions occur. Some even have moving parts that guide the molecules into the active site (e.g., 07/31/2004). The substrate leaves the enzyme unchanged, ready for its next customer. Scientists are finding that the precision of these machines is finely tuned. Here are some astonishing examples from recent papers:

[GodGunsGuts]

ping!

[valkyry1]

The ultimate:  Man-made catalysts can’t match natural ones, said Anthony J. Kirby and Florian Hollfelder in Nature.¹  One enzyme another team had measured, ketosteroid isomerase, is so precisely fitted to its substrate that a change of 10 picometers (where a picometer is 10^-12 meters) is enough to decrease its efficiency.  The active site holds onto the substrate while another molecular switch transfers a single electron.

    “Available tools for protein engineering clearly lack the subtle touch that is required to prepare effective designer enzymes,” they said.  Our fumbling attempts at engineering protein catalysts are like trying to thread needles with boxing gloves on.  The best reaction rates of artificial enzymes we have designed, they said, are “still tens of billions of times smaller than those of many enzymes.”

[DelphiUser]

But it was not designed, honest! Accidental efficiency, that's what it is! LOL!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Remember, it’s called “Darwin’s Theory” instead of “Darwin’s Facts” for a reason. Oh, and he died a believer, IIRC.

[ruination]

Tell that to the people who say the US government created HIV.

[GodGunsGuts]

Amazing, no? How the evos can believe blind chance can produce sophistication many orders of magnitude greater than purposeful human invention is beyond me.

[GodGunsGuts]

That’s literally what the Evos are positing. Amazing, isn’t it!

[valkyry1]

I doubt Maxine Waters would hear me out on that

[TASMANIANRED]

The more they learn the more there is to learn.

[DelphiUser]

Remember, it’s called “Darwin’s Theory” instead of “Darwin’s Facts” for a reason. Oh, and he died a believer, IIRC.

I had heard he recanted at the end, but when I looked it up there is no credible evidence of it. He apparently died a believer of his own theory.

[DelphiUser]

That’s literally what the Evos are positing. Amazing, isn’t it!

I guess we need to find a simpler way to say "Irreducibly Complex" (LOL!)

[metmom]

The ultimate: Man-made catalysts can’t match natural ones, said Anthony J. Kirby and Florian Hollfelder in Nature.1 One enzyme another team had measured, ketosteroid isomerase, is so precisely fitted to its substrate that a change of 10 picometers (where a picometer is 10-12 meters) is enough to decrease its efficiency. The active site holds onto the substrate while another molecular switch transfers a single electron.

“Available tools for protein engineering clearly lack the subtle touch that is required to prepare effective designer enzymes,” they said. Our fumbling attempts at engineering protein catalysts are like trying to thread needles with boxing gloves on. The best reaction rates of artificial enzymes we have designed, they said, are “still tens of billions of times smaller than those of many enzymes.”

But it all just happened by accident....really....

[metmom]

How the evos can believe blind chance can produce sophistication many orders of magnitude greater than purposeful human invention is beyond me.

IOW, they expect us to believe that something happened by accident that we can't even make happen on purpose.

[valkyry1]

The evolutionists attribute very magical powers to the fantasy gods of lifeless mindless random chance and natural selection.

Let them go unto their Gods. Similar thruths are written in the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita IIRC

[GodGunsGuts]

Exactly!

[Para-Ord.45]

It`s true.

Random chance (ToE) rolls the dice and it comes up

7s virtually every single time.

[Blackhawk]

Can't resist.

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

[GodGunsGuts]

Amen! And thank the Lord you have not built up a resistance to that verse!!!

[Kevmo]

bmflr

[Blackhawk]

Here is another.

Psalm 139:13-14

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

[metmom]

Col 1:16 & 17 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

[Blackhawk]

Wonderful!

And Obama wants to make sure that we kill as many babies as we possibly can. I mourn for our country and what we have become.

[metmom]

A brief summary from wikipedia....

Laminin-Laminin is a protein found in the extracellular matrix, the sheets of protein that form the substrate of all internal organs also called the basement membrane. It is the major non-collagenous component of the basal lamina, such as those on which cells of an epithelium sit.[1] It has four arms that can bind to four other molecules. The three shorter arms are particularly good at binding to other laminin molecules, which is what makes it so great at forming sheets. The long arm is capable of binding to cells, which helps anchor the actual organs to the membrane.

Cross shaped. Imagine that....

[aWolverine]

You know, this sort of science is what leads to doubting both man-made global warming AND the efficacy of trusting Barry to lower the oceans. It just won’t do at all.

[Blackhawk]

Cross shaped. Imagine that....

I can't even begin to. I drive a truck and about once a week have a long run from Milwaukee to Sparta Wisconsin. About a 3 1/2 hour drive each way through some of the most amazing countryside. It never ceases to humble me when I consider all he has made and entrusted to us.

[glorgau]

If god had wanted men to fly he would have given him wings.

[IncPen]

If god had wanted men to fly he would have given him wings.

He might also have given them the intelligence to divine a way that works for them.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[TChris]

Scientists are finding that the precision of these machines is finely tuned.

Huh.

It's almost as if those enzymes were engineered or something.

Go figure. ;-)

[Robwin]

Quite an incredible story. Even more incredible is that this all happened by chance. But that is what the Evos tell me.

[GourmetDan]

"The more they learn the more there is to learn."

"It's turtles all the way down..." :-)

[GourmetDan]

"Cross shaped. Imagine that...."

Wonderful post, metmom.

Thanks!