
Darwinian evolution is not a sufficient theory of life - Melchizedek
https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/giving-up-darwin/
======
gus_massa
About the Precambrian life, the author should read
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_biota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_biota)

About the combinatorial number of 150 amino acid proteins, I think the
calculation don't make sense. Nobody expect to get a 100% functional 150 amino
acid protein by chance. In particular I don't like:

> _He estimated that, of all 150-link amino acid sequences, 1 in 1074 will be
> capable of folding into a stable protein._

Is there a link for that calculation? Most random "proteins" fold as some kind
of unuseful crap. But IIRC it's stable unuseful crap. Perhaps it's not
soluble, perhaps it's not active as a enzyme, but it will not self destroy or
something.

And there are smaller and bigger proteins. Probably the first proteins were
only a few amono acid long, and not very effective, and then they evolved into
more long and efective versions. See for example

From
[https://www.science20.com/princerain/blog/whats_biggest_and_...](https://www.science20.com/princerain/blog/whats_biggest_and_whats_smallest)

> _The smallest human protein is 44 amino acids but it could be an abortive
> translation from the 5 ' UTR of another mRNA. The smallest functional
> polypeptide is glutathione with only three amino acids._

(more info
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutathione](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutathione)
)

From
[https://www.science20.com/princerain/blog/smallest_protein](https://www.science20.com/princerain/blog/smallest_protein)

> _Apparently it 's TRP-Cage, a protein with only 20 amino acids derived from
> the saliva of Gila monsters._

(more info
[https://www.anaspec.com/products/product.asp?id=59018](https://www.anaspec.com/products/product.asp?id=59018)
)

One family of proteins that has a clear history of evolving between species is
the hemoglobin-like proteins
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globin)

------
dekhn
"But what does generating new forms of life entail? Many biologists agree that
generating a new shape of protein is the essence of it."

No, that's not what many biologists agree.

