IT RULEZ! I got help from college Bio Profs! Excellent topical knowledgeIntroduction: Why globular evolution?Evolution has been a heavily debated issue since Charles Darwin first documented the theory in 1859. However, until just recently, adaptation at a molecular level has been overlooked except by the scientific world. Now with the help of modern technology, the protein sequences of nearly every known living thing have either been established or are in the process of establishment, and are widely accessible via the internet. With the knowledge of these sequences, one can actually look at several organisms genetic codes and point out the similarities. Entire genomes of creatures have b ...view middle of the document...
It is conceivable that the two ideas, creationism and evolutionism, can exist symbiotically due to the fact that both views have very good points.Hemoglobin: Comparisons between speciesOf all the proteins in living things, hemoglobin is 'the second most interesting substance in the world,' as American biochemist L. J. Henderson once stated (Hemoglobin, 4). However bold this statement seems, it must be realized that hemoglobin is, at least in the scientific world, by far the most studied and most discussed substance in the human body, as well as in other living organisms. Hemoglobin is the carrier in blood that transports oxygen to our tissues and carbon dioxide out of our body, changing colors as it does so. Hence, hemoglobin has long been termed the pigment of our blood. Hemoglobin was one of the first proteins to be purified to the point where its molecular weight and amino acid composition could be accurately measured. This finding was very important in that it eventually lead to the understanding that a protein is a definite compound and not a colloidal mixture of polymers. Each molecule was built from exactly the same amino acid subunits connected in the same order along a chain, and had exactly the same weight. Most organisms have their own unique, individual chain of proteins to make up their hemoglobin, but all organisms share certain similarities, so striking that they are unable to be ignored. Let's take, for example, the first twenty-five amino acids in the alpha hemoglobin chains of 7 different animals: a human man, rhesus monkey, cow, platypus, chicken, carp (bony fish), and shark (cartilaginous fish) (See Table 1.1.) As is shown, the variations increase the further apart the organisms are on the proposed evolutionary scale. A human man differs from a rhesus monkey only twice in the first twenty-five amino acids of their alpha hemoglobin chains, whereas a man and a cow differ in three areas. This is the product of many thousands of years of natural fine tuning, if you will, through the slow but precise processes of natural selection and adaptation. The fact of natural selection shows us that while most genetic mutations usually prove fatal, a slim few are actually beneficial, and assist the mutant in living and procreating offspring. This assistance helps the mutant-gene's frequency grow in the gene pool and remain there since all progeny possessing this certain trait are going to have an advantage over the other organisms lacking this quality. This is the basis for evolution. The higher a certain species is on the evolutionary scale, the more advanced that organism is due to a slight change in the amino acid sequences of certain genes. An example would be that of the human man, the rhesus monkey, and the cow. There is a smaller difference in the amino acid sequences between a man and a monkey than between a man and a cow, and, respectively, a monkey is more advanced than a cow, genetically (monkeys and humans have far advan...
