Proteins, Levinthal’s Paradox and God

Part of the benefits of being a biology major is looking at life through slightly more complex eyes. (Doesn’t sound like much fun…but it is!) Recently in class we went over two interesting topics in my most loved biochemistry class with Dr. Anderson. Here we go with a quick Biochemistry 101.

Protein is not just the stuff ‘they’ say is in eggs, steak and all that those who adhere to a high Protein diet eat!! It is also the stuff that our cells are constantly making even this very minute. They are the most important machines in the body because they regulate most of the biochemical pathways that are essential to life. Now to get to the point of all this, before you are disinterested, all proteins are made in the cell and are folded to be functionally active; this happens by the help of other proteins. The question is then raised, “Where do the proteins that help the new proteins fold properly so they can function come from? To answer the question, two answers may be exploited, either: There would have to be an infinite number of reductions into eternity past up to the point where the first protein was some how arrived at by a series of random collisions, or someone would have had to make the first essential proteins for the whole system to begin working.

Exploring either of these answers led me to my second observation in my Biochemistry class. We learnt about what is called Levinthal’s Paradox: In 1969 Cyrus Levinthal found that for a protein containing 100 amino acids (a really small protein) to fold correctly into its functional form, if allowed to fold randomly would take approximately 20 Billion years to do so. The reason this is a paradox and relevant to what we are saying is; according to the Big Bang theory the supposed age of the earth is only about 14 billion years. If this is an accurate calculation, then we should have the first protein in 6 billion years! What is even more amazing is that it takes bacteria (E. coli) only 5 seconds to fold an equivalently long protein! In an attempt to solve this paradox, two possibilities may be exploited, either: As organisms evolved, they developed faster methods of folding proteins that would fit into the 14 billion year old universe model, or someone would have had to make and pre-design the first essential proteins and their mechanism of folding to suffice into the 5 second folding by E. coli

Exploring either of these answers led me to one all satisfying conclusion: God. Since all things were made by and through Him, it is perfectly fine that a protein that should fold in 20 billion years, folds correctly in only 5 seconds; it is perfectly fine that all the necessary ingredients and elements necessary for this to occur were made available from the beginning of time to allow correct folding the first time; it is also perfectly fine to believe without a shadow of a doubt, that God was, is and will be responsible for the presence and sustenance of all things. (Heb 1:3)

So there it is! The things you learn about God in the folding of proteins! Who would have thought?