Quote:
|
Originally Posted by hannukah harry
yep... a good example would be virus' (virii?). they are not considered to be living, but they definatly aren't dead. they're almost animated, replicating proteins. i wouldn't be surprised if they are a link between the proteins formed in the primordial ooze and the first super-simple organism.
|
Viruses are not replicating proteins. They use either DNA or RNA, like every single other thing on this planet that can replicate given appropriate conditions.
Both DNA and RNA require a ribose or deoxyribose backbone; it's what holds the base pairs together. Furthermore, it requires a high concentration of divalent cations (eg Mg2+) to prevent the negatively charged phosphorus groups from tearing the molecule apart.
Ribose is not something that just shows up, in order to produce it requires at least five separate large enzyme complexes, which normally exist closely together within a cell. The fact that there are more proteins 100 amino acids in length (which is smaller than any of the enzymes which are required for ribose production) than there are protons in the universe (20^100) I think at least gives *some* weight to the idea that maybe there might be some kind of designing force in the universe.