Biochemical Miracles
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked of the heavens with a span?” Isaiah 40:12
The notion that Isaiah wants us all to grasp is that the God who created this universe, and each one of us, is immeasurably great when the vast dimensions and intricacies of the universe are considered. Michael Denton’s book ‘The Miracle of the Cell’ gives details of the remarkable chemical and biochemical features that enable cells to live and move. Each cell is an incredibly mind-blowing microcosm of finely detailed structures and mechanisms. He argues that everything must have been designed down to the minutest detail. If you watch a video of a white cell chasing and then engulfing a bacterium, it is as if the cell has a mind! Cells seem to behave as sentient, autonomous beings. A recent behaviourist wrote,
“The microscopic world of the single living cell mirrors our own in so many different ways: cells are essentially autonomous, sentient and ingenious. In the lives of single cells we can perceive the roots of our intelligence.”i
This article will examine just a few of the remarkable details that can only be explained if there is a designer of everything. What is being discovered is that even what were thought to be simple organisms are in fact incredibly complex. Professor Nick Lane, an evolutionary biochemist has stated
“At the level of their biochemistry, the barrier between bacteria and complex cells barely exists.
Properties of Carbon
Without carbon, physical life would be impossible. Yet an excess of carbon destroys life. Too much carbon results in an excess of chemicals such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. In moderate quantities these gases help preserve the warmth of the earth through their greenhouse effect. In larger quantities the cause an overheating of the earth and so prevent life. One of the remarkable features is that there is enough carbon to enable biochemistry but not so much as to interfere with life’s needs. Respiration depends upon the fine tuning of the level of carbon dioxide in the body. Everything is remarkably finely turned.
The natural chemical and physical properties of the carbon atom in combination with hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are what enable cells to live. At first carbon, commonly known as coal, soot, diamonds, and recently graphene (which is a monolayer of tightly packed carbon atoms that is one hundred times the strength of a monolayer of steel), would seem as an unlikely candidate on which to base life. Yet carbon is the only element that can form long chains of carbon atoms joined by strong covalent bonds. Out of all the elements, carbon is unique in its ability to form around ten million organic chemicals, each with unique properties. This number is larger than all non carbon chemicals when added together.
When carbon is linked to hydrogen, the remarkable hydrocarbons are formed, such as butane, benzene. plastics, and petrol as well as mothballs (naphthalene)!
When carbon is combined with hydrogen and oxygen another group of compounds is formed that includes alcohols, fatty acids, sugars, cellulose, and beeswax.
With the addition of nitrogen a further group of chemicals appears that are essential for life, such as proteins and nucleic acids.
It is the unique features of carbon atoms that enable biochemical processes to occur and living cells to exist. The design of these atoms and their separate properties are astounding, it is as if everything is made to enable life.
Yet carbon forms only 0.0007% of the mass of the universe.
Long Chains enable large molecules
Gigantic molecules such as proteins can contain over a million atoms and these are not uncommon. Such macro-molecules are unique to organic chemistry. These chains are relatively rigid and can so give structure. Primo Levi has concluded,
“Carbon, in fact, is a singular element: it is the only element that can bind itself in long stable chains without a great expense of energy, and for life on earth (the only one we know of so far) precisely long chains are required. Therefore carbon is the key element of living substance.”ii
In fiction it has been suggested that silicon could be the basis for other life forms as it can also form chains, but silicon chains are less stable, especially in the presence of water and oxygen. Carbon – Carbon bonds have twice the strength of Si - Si bonds.
Four valencies
The ability to form strong electron - sharing bonds with other atoms is a key feature of the carbon atom, even when it is in chains. It enables three dimensional structures to be formed. This ability to bond covalently with small elements of similar energy levels such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and halogen atoms so that the complexes are stable yet can be altered without too much energy being utilised. The addition of these elements changes the properties of the carbon based molecule.
Strong bonding
This feature enables organic chemicals to be stable, for relatively long periods of time at ambient temperatures, yet able to be modified by enzymes within the cells. The strength of these bonds has to be ‘just right’. This characteristic of carbon molecules is often forgotten when investigating the extraordinary fine tuning that is essential for life to be possible.
Temperature stability
Temperatures within the universe have varied from absolute zero, minus 273 degrees centigrade to that estimated to have existed in the ‘big bang’, 1032 degrees centigrade. Biochemical processes only work between minus 50 degrees C and 100 degrees C. These are the temperature ranges found on earth. These are the temperatures at which water is a liquid on earth. What an extraordinary coincidence for these two ranges to coincide and so make life possible!
Combinations with other elements
Many of the elements in the periodic table are metals that do not form strong covalent directional bonds, but oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen (all colourless gases) are able to form strong directional covalent bonds. These are the four smallest elements in the periodic table. It is these elements that enable carboxyl (-COOH), amino (-NH2), methyl (-CH3) to join with carbon chains and radically alter the characteristics. Long chains of hydrocarbons are insoluble in water whereas an -OH- or -NH- group at one end makes that end water attractive. This feature enables cell membranes to form from two laters of hydrocarbons with the hydrocarbon chains in the centre of the membrane and the hydrophilic ends on the outside.
Some proteins are so folded that they can exist as pores across the membranes in cells and this allows the biochemical processes essential to life to occur. No cell could exist if they did not have these semi-permeable membranes. It has been found that these membranes have to be of a certain size to function well and it so happens that the chains of the fatty acids that make up the membranes are exactly the right size, each having 14-16 carbon chains.
These membranes, or the central hydrocarbon layer acts as an electrical insulator that enables an electric charge difference to occur across the membrane. Cells can regulate this by admitting sodium ions through the pores and it is by doing this that nerves can conduct an electric impulse.
It appears that carbon is a unique element with properties that seem to exist for the one purpose of enabling life to become a possibility.
The Double Helix of DNA
Professor Anthony Flew was a prominent atheist for more than 50 years. He used to be Professor of Philosophy at Reading University. In 2005, he went public to acknowledge that some intelligence must have been involved in the creation of the universe. Talking about DNA research, he said this “has shown by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.” Following the evidence had led him to this conclusion.
The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and the precise spatial structure that enabled the organisation of the multitude of biochemical reactions going on within a cell has revealed a seemingly incredible mechanism is at the core of life. Man couldn’t create such structures, even in the 21st century! The chains of nucleotides not only contain a plethora of information but can then self replicate. The DNA of each cell contains more meaningful information held than the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica. The order of the nucleotides within each strand of DNA controls the arrangement of the amino acids that make up the various proteins. There has to be a mind behind both the brilliant memory system but also behind the information it contains.
The strength and stability of each DNA strand is maintained by the covalent bonds between carbon atoms that form the backbone of the chain. Covalent bonds are directional and give the chain its stability. The two chains of DNA in the double helix are held together by weaker forces so they can be ‘unzipped’ when being replicated without damaging each chain. The covalent bonds are ten to twenty times stronger that the weak bonds, yet both these forces are necessary if cells are to exist and function. The weak bonds enable different parts of macromolecules, such as proteins and the two strands of the DNA to ‘selectively stick’ together and so give three dimensional structures that give proteins their ability to exert a function.
All these forces have to be precisely right and balanced so that the biochemicals can be broken easily in a controlled manner without the use of excessive amounts of energy. How is it that they are so precisely correct for cells to function as they do?
Energy for Cells
Life within all cells is regulated by the intermittent controlled release of energy as it is needed. This energy is stored as Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) and GTP. The energy is released when the terminal phosphate group is taken off. A single cell consumes around 10 million molecules of ATP every second and this means each molecule of ATP is recharged once or twice a minute. It has been calculated that a single flying honeybee uses and then resynthesises 1.39 x 1015 molecules of ATP per wingbeat cycle!
Chemical structure of ATP
The energy rich ATP is formed from ADP and AMP by adding phosphate units. The energy to do this is created by two main processes. Glycolysis is an anaerobic biochemical process in which, by a series of reactions a molecule of sugar is converted into two molecules of pyruvate and two ATP molecules. Sometimes this process is called ‘fermentation’ as the pyruvate molecules can readily be converted to ethanol (alcohol). The other process for releasing energy is called‘cellular respiration’. In this the pyruvate formed by glycolysis is combined with oxygen in a cycle of biochemical processes, to form CO2 and water (H2O) and 28 ATP molecules. It is clear that respiration is a far more efficient process and this is the process that is found in the mitochondria of cells of all advanced aerobic organisms. Some bacteria use other less efficient means of producing energy by using chemicals other than oxygen to drive the processes and these include CO2, SO4 and even ferric ions.
The remarkable nature of water
It is so easy to overlook the vital characteristics of water. Any fluid serving as the cell’s matrix must be a good solvent and, to some extent virtually all chemicals can be carried in solution as nearly all chemicals have a polar area. Water is a remarkable solvent, there is nothing like it. Only oils, which consist of long hydrocarbon chains with no polar areas, do not mix with water. This is why cell membranes can form. Water also forms the matrix that enables biochemical processes to occur within cells. The physical properties of water enable life to exist. It is a liquid at the temperatures between 0O and 50O which is the temperature when virtually all life exists. Without this property we could not exist!
The need for metals
All of the metals that we find on Earth originated billions of years ago. Inside the ultra-hot high pressure environment of the stars, simple hydrogen and helium atoms fused together to create heavier elements. After the original stars exploded, dust and gas from these explosions found their way to our local galaxy and were caught up in the making of our own solar system. Particles swirling around the new sun clumped together into planets, including Earth. A lot of the metal on Earth, especially iron, is found in its core. Metals are scattered unevenly throughout the Earth’s crust, mixed with rock and combined with oxygen and other elements. The remarkable thing is that our earth has all the elements necessary for life and this itself is extraordinary.
Iron is an essential element. It forms the core of the earth, keeps the earth stable and gives it a strong magnetic field essential for life on earth. It is this magnetic field that retains our atmosphere as well as the protective van Allen radiation belts that protect the earth from high energy destructive cosmic radiation, Iron is also a mineral that the body needs for growth and development. Our bodies use iron to make every molecule of haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body, and myoglobin, a protein that provides oxygen to muscles. Iron is also required to make some hormones.
Metals are now recognised to be essential factors in our biochemical processes. Close to one third of all enzymes involve a metal ion, half of all proteins have metal ions and most ribosomes (RNA molecules with enzymic functions) cannot function without metal ions.
It is now known that at least ten different metal atoms, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc play essential roles in the cell. What we call ATP and other energy rich phosphates such as GTP (guanosine triphosphate) depend on an association with a magnesium ion. For the millions of years that life appears to have existed on earth no other metal has replaced this role of Mg++ in any known cell. The intricacies of these mechanisms shouts that there is a designer and when one complex mechanism is dependant on another complex mechanism working in perfect harmony the design process is staggering. Thus for a retinal cell in the eye to transform a photon of light into an electric impulse along the optic nerve requires around 200 enzymes that all have to be present and in the right place. If one of these is missing or defective the eye would not work. Such irreducibly complex mechanisms again demand that these systems were designed.
What is remarkable is the way that our planet formed in such a way that these chemicals and metals were not only present on earth but had the precise properties so that the biochemical processes, essential for life can not only occur but work together in a controlled purposeful way. It is surely obvious that they have been designed, the next question should be who by!
BVP
May 2022
iBrian J Ford, ‘The Secret Power of the Single Cell,’ New Scientist 2757 (2010) p.26
iiPrimo Levi, ‘The Periodic Table’, London Abacus, 1990, p. 226-227
