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Biochemical Predestination

This theory was developed in the late 1960s by Dean Kenyon and Gary Steinman to explain the self assembly of biochemical molecular compounds such as proteins from non-living raw chemicals given the right environmental conditions¹. The basic idea proposed by the theory was is that amino acids are structured in such a way, and have properties such that they are pre-disposed to assemble in a way highly conducive to the chance production of life molecules such as proteins. The theory was popular for more than twenty years as an explanatory theory of self assembly as the starting point for chemical evolution. The theory has more recently grown unpopular, being supplanted by other explanatory theories, and due to some of the critical shortcomings of biochemical predestination as an explanatory hypothesis². New discoveries about the complexity and intricacy of the structural assembly requirements and patterns for amino acids in proteins have led Dr. Kenyon himself to seriously doubt the veracity of 'Biochemical Predestination'³.

It was the complex specific configurations exhibited in the folding of life molecules, along with the probabilistic challenges that they presented, that first caused Dr Kenyon to question the theory⁴. The theory of biochemical predestination fails to explain how complex amino acid based proteins self assembled themselves without, or prior to the existence of, DNA based sequencing or assembly codes, given the requirements of the complex spatial arrangement and correct sequencing of amino acids⁵. The improbability of chance alone producing complexly arranged proteins in such a setting is enormous. These difficulties led to an inferential circularity wherein the theory is forced to assume the existence of the very life molecules of which it seeks to explain the spontaneous origins⁶. Professor Kenyon, and many other brilliant biochemists and scientists, still struggle with the issues presented by the assembly and structure of life molecules, and still no naturalistic solution exists.

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Footnotes

1. Illustra Media, Unlocking the Mystery of Life, USA: Illustra Media, 2002.
2. Ibid.,
3. Ibid.,
4. Ibid.,
5. Ibid.,
6. Ibid.,


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Bibliographical References

Video

Illustra Media, Unlocking the Mystery of Life, USA: Illustra Media, 2002.
(Referenced by permission)

Editor(s): Long, B.

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