Posts Tagged ‘RNA’

Designer Junk

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

RNA excerpt. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

RNA excerpt. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

If life arose by chance, one would expect to find lots of “mistakes” in organisms— vestigal organs and junk DNA, for example. Prominent atheists have made just this case.

However, greater knowledge of the cell’s workings has shown that much that was once considered junk DNA is absolutely essential to the function of the cell. Such was the case with microRNAs, short snippets of RNA that not long ago were thought to be garbage, but recently found to regulate genes.

Now this “junk” holds out the long-term prospect of cancer treatment. Just a few weeks ago Johns Hopkins researchers published a paper showing that microRNAs are set into production by cell density, although somehow this function breaks down in cancers. The hope is that research will show how to repair, restore or replicate the crucial function of microRNAs in the fight against cancers.

The more that so-called junk DNA and RNA are found to be intricately involved in cell function and regulation, the weaker the atheist argument grows and the stronger the case for a designer becomes.