Authors: Branko Kozulic, Matti Leisola
Over two millennia ago Socrates was pondering whether our Universe and all things in it are governed by randomness or by a regulating intelligence. This philosophical question has been alive till the present day, since the proponents of neither side have been able to convince their opponents. Scientists seldom express or recognize clearly their philosophical presuppositions and many think that there is no room for philosophy in science. Our view is that although science cannot determine which philosophical view is correct, it can show which one is wrong. Here we critically review the experimental results obtained during the past twenty years by Jack W. Szostak and his co-workers relating to functional information among random RNA and protein sequences. We explain in detail why their experiments with random or partially randomized protein sequences do not mimic the processes that take place in natural populations. Simple calculations show that in the laboratory scientists have searched much larger sequence space than could have been searched by random natural processes. We further argue that the discovery of singletons and of protein-protein-interaction networks has removed the randomness concept from biochemistry, and that neo-Darwinian view of the living world is false. We see faulty Hegelian logic as a major reason for the survival of the illusion that evolution is true, and the same logic is misleading many scientists into accepting empty phrases like “intrinsically disordered proteins” as existentially meaningful.
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[v1] 2015-04-17 01:53:05
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