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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1537)	2/23/2007 10:11:42 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

"While proteins could be either right or left handed, there is only one "hand" in any given protein molecule." You're mixing up amino acids and proteins. Amino acids are the simpler molecule and the amino acids involved in life are left-handed forms. But synthesis of amino acids in laboratories (the "soup and spark" experiments for example) result in an exact 1:1 ratio of the L and D forms (L - levo are left-handed forms, D - dextro are right handed forms). Proteins are long chains of amino acids, about 200 to over 1000 amino acids in length. Only L amino acids are used in making proteins in living things. The problem is how you get the first proteins all composed of L amino acids in an environment which would have had roughly 50-50 D & L amino acids. "It just so happens that a right handed one happened to have an interesting property first. It's not a question of statistics, once a right-handed protein appeared that started eating up the primordial soup the race was over before the left handed ones had a chance. " This is a set of confused sentences. Proteins in living things are made of left handed amino acids, not right handed as you state above. Also proteins aren't alive and don't eat "soup" or anything else. "Remember, when these proteins replicate is not via Star-Trek replicators, they actually consume the other amino acids in the primordial soup." Proteins don't replicate. They're manufactured in living cells according to pre-programmed guidelines in the DNA.