QUESTIONS ARISING -- SPECIES ORIGIN

"The origin of species is the question of questions in Zoology; the supreme problem which the most striking of our original labourers, the clearest zoological thinkers, and the most successful generalisers, have never lost sight of, whilst they have approached it with due reverence" -- Sir Richard Owen after he had reviewed Darwin's theories.

The pre-ordained revelation of living things was accomplished through information technology. The earth was "founded...by wisdom", and the heavens were "established...by understanding" (Pro.3:19). The procedure for building complex structures by wisdom and understanding follows different lines to that of building them with a wheelbarrow and trowel. The language and the concepts of origins employed in Scripture are sophisticated beyond our understanding. Einsteinian relativity, gravity, the expanding universe, mechanisms of planet formation, information technology, the revelation of the species, couched in language suggestive of advanced technologies .........

We have postulated information pre-programming, as an aspect of the "wisdom and understanding" by which the universe, including the species, was revealed. We have raised the possibility of three mechanisms through which this may have been achieved:
1). Information storage and transmission, principally involving the solar system;
2). Enviromental change; and
3). Information capacity inherent in the design of DNA itself.

It is here suggested that these three work in concert. What precisely is the role of each? Did these roles change throughout geologic history? Are these the only mechanisms involved? How did they work in concert to bring about the transformation of one species to another?

Is there an ingenious capability to self-extend built into DNA? Imagine a DNA strand to be a long aggregation of cogs, or gearboxes. Microbes do not require as many gearboxes as elephants. Assume DNA -- of which we know so little -- has "buttons", which enviromental change can "push". By pushing the button, the DNA is activated to the building of a new category of gearbox. The manufacture of basic patterns of gearbox is inherent in the molecule, whilst individual and specific new species information came from outside. When the world stood in need of trees, pre-ordained enviromental conditions caused the "tree gearbox" buttons to be pushed, and the way in which living organisms are designed led to vast new gearbox availability in some plants. The same or subsequent enviromental changes triggered the laying down of potential "flying" and "tree-climbing" gearboxes in some animals. Trees appeared, and in time animals began to climb trees and to fly. Environmental pressure alone could not cause an organism to develop tree-gripping claws and wings. However, if DNA was designed so that an environmental signal would cause it to lay down wing and climbing-claw building capacity, and quantum (i.e., atom - altering) signalling in combination with environmental circumstances gave specific "building instructions", could the climbing and flying organisms begin to be revealed?

This leads us to consider information input from outside nature. As we have already observed, the scriptural langauge of origins is extremely sophisticated. For example, all complex life was created on the fifth day, and yet land animals and birds were formed out of the ground on the sixth day. Create signifies momentous action. Formed out of the ground signifies common, or secondary, posibly modifying action. Therefore, formed out of the ground presumably means to give land-dwelling capability to already-existing life-forms. At this point in geologic history - early on the sixth day - DNA etc. in some organisms was presumably profoundly altered. Was this modifying process something that Biology will be able to understand, or is it beyond the reach of human research? Items such as lungs, legs, and sun-resistant skin, are not simple. The language of the Sriptures appears to leave open the question of whether or not the emplacement of land-dwelling capability was a humanly understandable process. Like the emplacement of climbing claw- and wing- building capacity, it wasn't simple.

Leaving momentous events such as creation and modification from outside the biosphere aside: if the pre-programmed realization of the species was achieved through quantum signalling, with environmental conditions as triggers, research should reveal the mechanisms. Research has barely dabbled its toe in this pond. If any one thing can be concluded from science's understanding of quantum information processes and living cells, it is that evolutionary teachings to date must have been drawn from the aethereal aether -- there hasn't been an oversupply of facts! One line of approach could be to exhaustively analyze the DNA of an ancient life-form, and compare it with that of a recent species. The Coelacanth is a possible candidate? Coelacanths were fishes prominent during the Devonian Period. This gives them a probable age of the order of 350 - 400 mill. yrs. Other living organisms have a longer history, but perhaps have not been as thoroughly analyzed for genetic information? The living representative(s) of the Coelacanths closely resemble other members of their family, although they are currently classified as different species to any of those so far described from Devonian fossil remains. It seems reasonable to regard Coelacanths as truly ancient organisms? Work on these "living fossils" is underway. A layman's reading of the `drop in the bucket' of information currently available, would not contradict, and perhaps would support, the following?

a). The information devices of ancient fishes were modern -- that is, they were of the same functional design throughout time.

b). The DNA of the Coelacanth is of the same order of complexity as that of fishes which appeared more than 100 million years later. This could support the idea that DNA could have carried latent information within itself?

c). The DNA of fish is markedly different from that of land animals. As Genesis tells us, land animals were "formed of earth" on day 6 -- a novel and semi-unique input of land-dwelling capacity, the impartation processes of which we may or may not be able to fully comprehend?

Thus the information currently available points to information storage and transmission mechanisms being basically the same throughout geologic history. It could allow for DNA to have been a pre-programmed "storehouse" of some information, with environment as a "trip" or "trigger". When environmental conditions called for new species, latent modifications which had lain dormant in the DNA itself, combined with external quantum information-signalling, brought about the transformations.

Probable evidence of such "latent modifications" has been unearthed by scientists studying genes involved in limb development (Hox genes). Researchers have "found that the genetic capability seen in tetrapods to build limbs is present in ... primitive fish" (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070523132701.htm). The discovery that fish possessed genes associated with tetrapod limb development long before the appearance of tetrapods indicates that advanced genetic information was latent in early species.

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Would a cell with reprogrammed DNA be recognized and attacked by the auto-immune system? As we learned previously, as of the year 2012, the functioning of the immune system is an enigma. Notwithstanding our ignorance in this area we have strong circumstantial evidence that modified cells can exist in organisms without being recognized as foreign. Cancer is a striking example of a mutated, or different, cell, escaping detection by the immune system.

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Assume environmental pressures have caused a strain or race within a species to become isolated, and a cell or cells within an individual of this separated race has been reprogrammed for a new species. This reprogrammed cell will contain all the genetic information required by the new species: but how will the new species be born and reared? In any unfolding species sequence, individuals of one species were physically similiar to the next. It is theoretically possible for an animal of one species to conceive, give birth to, and rear an individual of another species, provided it has been programmed to do so. The two species can theoretically be made conformable through re-programming. Thus, one species does not give birth to another, since it has already (in a real sense) become the other. Because of re-programming, the mother saw its offspring to be its own, and treated it as such. Mothers' milk, if necessary, was rendered acceptable through immune-system re-programming. Foods and lifestyles were similar. Impartation of the complete new species code into the DNA may have taken place when only one or two cells required it -- perhaps in the mother and father(?) before conception, or soon after conception. Many aspects of living things remain conjectural.

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Something keeps species reproductively isolated. For example, even if a horse and donkey can be successfuly crossed to produce a mule, something prevents the mule -- and all such hybrids -- from going on to produce offspring so as to generate a new species. There is, in nature, a 'species lock'. We have conjectured that this 'lock' or 'bar' is an aspect of the workings of the auto-immune and reproductive systems, and involves information technology and biochemistry. The 'lock' must be simple. How was the 'combination' of this 'lock' tripped, to allow species transformation? New developments in biology bring us closer to answering such questions!

FURTHER READING

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (2011, July 25). Epigenetic 'memory' key to nature versus nurture. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 6, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110724135553.htm. Quote, "Researchers at the John Innes Centre have made a discovery, reported this evening (24 July) in Nature, that explains how an organism can create a biological memory of some variable condition, such as quality of nutrition or temperature. The discovery explains the mechanism of this memory -- a sort of biological switch -- and how it can also be inherited by offspring."

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2011, October 14). From blue whales to earthworms, a common mechanism gives shape to living beings. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111013153943.htm QUOTE (emphasis added), "……The process is astonishingly simple. In the embryo's first moments, the Hox genes are dormant, packaged like a spool of wound yarn on the DNA. When the time is right, the strand begins to unwind. When the embryo begins to form the upper levels, the genes encoding the formation of cervical vertebrae come off the spool and become activated. Then it is the thoracic vertebrae's turn, and so on down to the tailbone. The DNA strand acts a bit like an old-fashioned computer punchcard, delivering specific instructions as it progressively goes through the machine. "A new gene comes out of the spool every ninety minutes, which corresponds to the time needed for a new layer of the embryo to be built," explains Duboule. "It takes two days for the strand to completely unwind; this is the same time that's needed for all the layers of the embryo to be completed." This system is the first "mechanical" clock ever discovered in genetics. And it explains why the system is so remarkably precise. This discovery is the result of many years of work. Under the direction of Duboule and Daniël Noordermeer, the team analyzed thousands of Hox gene spools. With assistance from the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics, the scientists were able to compile huge quantities of data and model the structure of the spool and how it unwinds over time.……The Hox clock is a demonstration of the extraordinary complexity of evolution. One notable property of the mechanism is its extreme stability, explains Duboule. "Circadian or menstrual clocks involve complex chemistry. They can thus adapt to changing contexts, but in a general sense are fairly imprecise. The mechanism that we have discovered must be infinitely more stable and precise. Even the smallest change would end up leading to the emergence of a new species."" COMMENT: A machine is programmed by a machinist.

Emory University (2009, October 17). Seeing Blue: Fish Vision Discovery Makes Waves In Evolutionary Biology. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 20, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016121827.htm

New York Medical College (2011, June 22). New theory on origin of birds: Enlarged skeletal muscles. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 3, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110622115317.htm Quote, "Dr. Newman draws on earlier work from his laboratory that provided evidence for the loss, in the common dinosaur ancestors of birds and lizards, of the gene for uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1). The product of this gene is essential for the ability of "brown fat," tissue that protects newborns of mammals from hypothermia, to generate heat. In birds, heat generation is mainly a function of skeletal muscles.
"Unlike the scenario in which the evolution of flight is the driving force for the origin of birds, the muscle expansion theory does not require functionally operative intermediates in the transition to flight, swimming, or winglessness, nor does it require that all modern flightless birds, such as ostriches and penguins, had flying ancestors. It does suggest that the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs may have been related to a failure to evolve compensatory heat-generating mechanisms in face of the loss of UCP1," says the scientist"

Northwestern University (2010, July 16). Human sperm gene is 600 million years old, scientists discover. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 17, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715172000.htm.

Rockefeller University (2009, April 17), 'New Nucleotide in DNA Could Revolutionize Epigenetics' [Online]. Available from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416144639.htm (accessed 3rd May, 2009).

University of California - San Diego (2011, August 18). Biologists' discovery may force revision of biology textbooks: Novel chromatin particle halfway between DNA and a nucleosome. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818142842.htm.

University of California - San Francisco (2010, December 17). Human fetal immune system arises from entirely different source than adult immune system. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101216165519.htm. COMMENT: The immune system of the foetus is compatible with he mother's, so that the foetus is not rejected by the mother's body. Yet the immune system of the newborn babe is different to the mother's, meaning that one human being cannot interchange organs with another, without difficulties. I.e. the correct information theoretically might make one species compatible with another species in terms of immune systems?

University of California - Santa Cruz (2011, August 21). Three waves of evolutionary innovation shaped diversity of vertebrates, genome analysis reveals. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818142738.htm. Quote, "Many previous studies have shown that important evolutionary changes in animals have resulted from the gain, loss, or modification of gene regulatory elements, rather than from the evolution of new protein-coding genes. "Most of the changes that have happened during vertebrate evolution, as animals acquired new body plans and features like feathers and hair, were not the result of new genes but of new regulatory elements that turn genes on and off in different patterns," Haussler said."

University of Chicago Medical Center (2011, July 11). Genetic switch for limbs and digits found in primitive fish: Before animals first walked on land, fish carried gene program for limbs. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 6, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110711151453.htm. Quote, "Genetic switches control the timing and location of gene activity. When a particular switch taken from fish DNA is placed into mouse embryos, the segment can activate genes in the developing limb region of embryos, University of Chicago researchers report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The successful swap suggests that the recipe for limb development is conserved in species separated by 400 million years of evolution."

University of New South Wales (2011, June 7). Scientists use super microscope to pinpoint body’s immunity 'switch'. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 11, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110605132429.htm. Quote, "The discovery overturns prevailing understanding, identifying the exact molecular 'switch' that spurs T-cells into action -- a breakthrough that could lead to treatments for a range of conditions from auto-immune diseases to cancer."

University of North Carolina School of Medicine (2011, July 21). Researchers identify seventh and eighth bases of DNA. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 6, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110721142408.htm.

Yale University (2011, September 3). Manipulating plants' circadian clock may make all-season crops possible. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110901134643.htm Quote, "The circadian clock is the internal timekeeper found in almost all organisms that helps synchronize biological processes with day and night. In plants, this clock is crucial for adjusting growth to both time and day and to the seasons. The clock operates through the cooperative relationship between "morning" genes and "evening" genes. Proteins encoded by the morning genes suppress evening genes at daybreak, but by nightfall levels of these proteins drop and evening genes are activated. Intriguingly, these evening genes are necessary to turn on morning genes completing the 24-hour cycle. The Yale research solved one of the last remaining mysteries in this process when they identified the gene DET1 as crucial in helping to suppress expression of the evening genes in the circadian cycle." QUESTION: Is it possible that the day-night-day-night circadian rhythms of cellular chemistry are a factor in the unrolling of the species? Psalm 19:2-3 "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard."

 

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