The Insuperable Statistics of Polypeptide Synthesis

[UKAtheist]

@Cognostic

We understand why it is complex and how it got that way. Nothing to do with God or gods. Everything to do with thermodynamics. Am I wrong about this?

Pretty much how I understand it but then, I am (by education) just a fairly ordinary Applied Biology graduate and that was a really long time ago. I just love science fiction and science

UK Atheist

[SodaAnt]

@Cognostic

What I find interesting about the idea of complexity… “Complexity is an emergent property of systems following simple rules.” How complex is the bonding of two hydrogen atoms to one of oxygen. It seems to me that the entire universe is based on simple chemistry that we have, as yet, not quite understood and may not understand.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean when you say we haven’t yet understood simple chemistry. I would say that we actually do have a very good understanding of how chemistry works.

Chemical bonding has been well-understood since the 1930s when Pauling, and others, worked out the mechanisms in great detail. The key that really unlocked the whole thing was Pauli’s 1925 Exclusion Principle, which describes electron shell structure and how atoms share electrons, which determines how they bond.

[Cognostic]

@SodaAnt

I’m not sure I understand what you mean when you say we haven’t yet understood simple chemistry.

I stand corrected. … I don’t have the ability to speak beyond the ‘simple.’