Michael J. Behe Chapter 3 Summary

Michael J. Behe wrote this book to show that Darwinism is not consistent with what we now know about biochemistry. The book is a daring attempt to re-establish the argument for design in living things.
Chapter three is all about how molecule machines operate a cell. According to the book, these molecules are mostly made up of proteins and proteins carry out chemical reactions. They are very multitalented but they typically have one use or at most a very little. Each cell has thousands and thousands of proteins; there can be from 50 to 1,000 proteins in a single chain. These chains come in various lengths and every link has very different properties. Some may have a positive charge and other have a positive charge. Some are very large and
other may be very tiny and their shapes are turgid. Therefor, if tow proteins would join together then they must fit and if it does not fir then it will fail to do its job.
Michael J. Behe then mentions a molecular machine, which permits a one-celled animal to swim is called a cilium. A cilium is a structure that, roughly put, looks like a hair and beats like a whip. It is what is used to swim around.
What is needed to swim is a complex system that cannot be simplified in any way. In other words, if any protein is removed, then the cell cannot swim. Every piece of what is required for the cell to swim must be equivalent. Another thing that is needed is which is timing of the functioning parts and direction. “The complexity of the cilium and other swimming systems is inherent in the task itself.” (Pg. 65). It looks like it originated from a unit. Thus, this information refutes Darwin’s slow growth. Dawkins, a Darwinist, proposes that the development of the cilium happened this way. At one point in time microtubules stuck together and later on motor proteins accidently obtained the ability to push two microtubules and in turn caused a bending. This might have helped the cell survive and continued the small growth slowly created the cilium.
Behe then asks, “how exactly?” A protein that accidently stuck to microtubules would have stopped the use of this for travel. A protein that joins two microtubules would alter the shape and a fit cannot be prepared if the shapes are not matched properly. Behe then mentions that there are 10,000 papers published on the cilium and only two deals unclearly with evolution and they both contradict each other for that matter. Both papers needed a great amount of quantitative details, both papers hoped to get others to work on the problem but obviously this did not happen.
If someone wants to answer the question of evolution of the cilium then the person giving the answer should have great details. Cilia contain nexin, dynein, tubulin and a lot other proteins. If these certain proteins are not in the cell that does not have cilium then they will not produce a working cilium. A cilium has 200 plus different proteins and as the number of portions increases the possibility of slow gathering falls.
In chapter four, Behe uses a Rube Goldberg impractical machine to make a point. All of the parts are essential; for change slowly to happen, while parts are moved or changed, it would stop working. Darwin’s evolution tends to leave out what does not function. Behe then writes about blood clotting and mentions that it is called a cascading system. What this means is that when bleeding happens, this sets in motion a sequence of modifications which impedes the bleeding in the part of the bleeding only. It needs to also set in motion those steps that will bring a stop to the production of what triggers the clotting or the bacterium will die. For Darwin’s theory to describe the growth of this then a lot of successive, minor changes must be found.
Russell Doolittle gives a good description for the evolution of clotting. He gives a sequence of steps where clotting proteins show, one and then another one. There is a problem with that though, there is not given any explanations for the presence of the proteins. He does not specify where these proteins came from and he keeps using words like “spring forth, is born, appear, arise.”.
Behe attacks the problem this way: animals, which have blood-clotting torrents, have 10,000 genes and each gene has three parts, which makes 30,000 pieces.
TPA, which is an essential part of blood clotting, has four types that are part of the flowing system. The chances of getting these four together are 30,000 to the fourth. Behe then gives the example of a lottery ticket. “If 1,000,000 people played each year- it would take 1,000 billion years for anyone to win. 1,000 billion years is 100 times the known age of the universe.” Doolittle’s solution gives huge problems. Irreducibly complex systems are the main struggle. As Doolittle’s system goes, as the system started to build, when there was absolutely nothing to do. Proteins would be joining for no reason. If a protein emerged with no function, evolution would get rid of
it.
In chapters 5 and 6, Behe mentions that each cell has specific zones separated for specific tasks and they are the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, secretory vesicles, nucleus, endoplasm reticulum, perorisome, and lysosome.
Every one is a part by a membrane, and every membrane is divided because these are created of a material that is not found in the other portions of the cell. Manufactured material, which the cells require to function, moves a outstanding distance of 1/10,000 of an inch on its passage from the cytoplasm to the lysosome, still it needs the service of lots of different proteins to ensure its safe appearance. This system is complicated and the system by which it moves from one part to another is also complicated. This particular movement from one part to another is called a gated transport system. “How does this gated system work?” Well, proteins have a sign known by the membrane inside the cell. A protein passage opens and the protein goes through. This system places a major task to Darwinian evolution; without a sign a protein would not be known. If a protein did not know the sign, then there would be no passage. If the gateway let all proteins pass then this section would not be different than any other part of the
cell.
Behe then uses Vesicular transport model, which is even more complicated. His model is that of an automatic car moving system. He mentions that cars go in a truck and then the truck goes in a garage. Cars then exit the trucks, and then it parks. He says that there must be six factors to do this. “There has to be a tag on each car, a truck, a truck scanner, identification tag for the truck, a scanner at the garage and at the gate.” In this system, there are more parts to it. Gated transport and vesicular transport systems that depends upon detailed arrangements of proteins set in a specific way. Slow growth in Behe’s belief is not possible. Both systems are very different, so complicated that there appears to be absolutely no way to make the example that one progressed from the other. Plus, for the transportation system to work, the whole system must exist. A step-by-step change simply cannot reason for these systems. The difficulty of these systems would have necessitated chance for the system to grow. “When came the chance? How many times can chance be used to be explained? What are the probabilities that chance, time and again brought about a system so complicated and difficult?”
Michael J. Behe then discusses antibodies and he mentions that there are 100,000 distinctive antibodies. The antibody molecule is made in the inner part of the cell so that way it allows the antibody to attack an intruder and it must have a mandatory site, which matches that of the intruder it attacks. The antibody is stuck to the cell that created it in the first place. When bacteria are faced, the antibody attacks the bacteria and transports it inside the cell. The unknown protein is sliced up, a portion sticks to the cell’s MHC protein. Then this protein goes to the surface. A T cell comes along, and quandaries to the B cell, which created the antibody. If the T cell fits, it discharges interleukin- this ends communication to the B cell- grow. It then begins to reproduce and T cells keep discharging interleukin. B cells create spin off cells, plasma cells. These create antibodies which swim freely. Behe says, Darwinian stages will not meet the needs to describe this. There is no consecutive way by a sequence of stages for this growth to occur.
Scientists did the following tryout: produced molecules out of proteins, these molecules do not happen in nature, added these into a rabbit. The rabbit continued to make antibodies that stuck to the molecules. How can the cells of the rabbit create antibodies for an invader it had never even seen before? The answer Is that it inherited DNA that can can be altered. Antibodies do not slay the intruder, these antibodies are signals to other systems to kill the intruder. A accompaniment system to the antibodies, through a sequence of very difficult steps, cuts the enemy, producing it to drink water and explode. Alongside with this, the reader needs to understand that these cells know not to attack red blood cells for example. These two systems need be nearby the opening of the immune system.
In chapter seven, a question is asked, “What would it take in Darwin’s theory for these proteins to join together for these complex systems?” Behe mentions the ground hog crossing a road to get to its lover example. The highway has 2,000 lanes and none reach their destination; it illustrates problems of slow development.
Proteins are threaded like beads; for example AMP has “10 carbon atoms, 11 hydrogen atoms, 7 oxygen, 4 nitrogen and 1 phosphorus.” The formation of the nucleotide AMP involves the coming together of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus atoms via a series of very complex steps which require the intervention of other molecules to make sure that the final stage is achieved. AMP occurs via 13 steps requiring 12 enzymes and energy molecules. The energy has to also be given at the right times, just when the energy is obligatory. As of right now, no one has been capable to describe how the stages to produce AMP cold have occurred. Actually, the problem is even more complicated than this. None of the above accounts for the circumstance that there has be something to turn on its production and turn it off.
The making of AMP offers firm challenge to slow growth. The obstacle has yet to be addressed. Irreducibly complex systems proposition severe problems for slow development. But even the growth of a building block presents major problems.