The ID Report

By Robert Deyes
ARN Correspondent

The name 'Tie Club' derives from the saga behind the discovery of the genetic code in which Francis Crick, George Gammow and others played essential roles. "20 scientists, 20 amino acids, 20 matching ties and 1 collaboration to break the genetic code" was how one account described the club (Ref 1). The idea to form a club to decipher the genetic code came right on the heels of Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953. Ecstatic by what he read of Watson and Crick's work, Gammow wrote a letter asking for their thoughts on the mystery of how DNA might code for the amino acids found in proteins (Ref 1). Gammow was curious to know how, with just the four bases Adenosine, Cytosine, Thymidine and Guanine that are found in DNA, the twenty amino acids that make up proteins could be coded for. So it was that the Tie Club was born, which had as its goal the "fostering [of] consistent but informal communication on the coding problem" (Ref 1).

From its inception, the Tie Club was exclusive establishing a 'brotherly atmosphere' between its twenty members (each representing the 20 amino acids) and its four honorary members (for each of the four bases in DNA). Working together, these men eventually concluded that the four bases of DNA had to be organized into groups of at least three bases long since this was the minimum length needed to cover all twenty amino acids. Reading about the Tie Club we are perhaps reminded of Albert Einstein's own 'Akademie Olympia'- a group made up of Einstein's closest friends whose aim it was to foster scientific discussions around the subject of classical physics (Ref 2, p.47). And yet contrary to the images of popular culture, scientific discoveries such of those of Albert Einstein and the Tie Club, are not in some way restricted to the intellectually elite.

It turns out that our universe is fantastically accessible to scientific study and investigation by humanity as a whole, inspiring us to probe both the large and the small in our quest to understand its inner workings. Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher Jay Richards, perhaps the main stalwarts of the modern biocentricity movement, have told of how features such as the clear atmosphere of our earth, the stabilizing effect of the moon over the earth's rotation, our precise location in our galaxy and also the particular mass and size of our sun the sun are, "crucial to the discovery and measurement of the universe" (Ref 3, page X). Our earth is effectively a giant classroom for probing our universe on a grand scale and learning about its history. Moreover, we seem to be positioned in an optimal location to do so, as if at the very top corner of the cosmic 'school building' where our vista of our surroundings is superb. Indeed, Julia Lee Thorpe, a paleoclimatologist from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, explained in one television documentary how ice cores in the polar regions of our planet can provide valuable information about mean changes in the earth's climate over millions of years (Ref 4). We are likewise able to glean accurate data on the changing temperatures and sea levels of our oceans by studying the oxygen isotope content of small planktonic creatures called forams (Ref 4). We are also able to discern critical facts about the moon's orbital patterns over the millennia by examining growth layers on coral reefs (Ref 3, p.28). And we are able to build up accurate pictures of climate change by examining the growth rings of trees.

Our earth is teeming with biological 'data recorders' that have made possible close observation and detailed analysis of our earth (Ref 5, p.355). Moreover, there is no reason why this should necessarily be so. As theologian and physicist Arthur Peacocke expounded, there is no requirement for nature to be so open to discovery:

"Biology at all levels (molecular, macromolecular, organismic, phenotypic, ecological) is delving more and more deeply into the structures of life. The intricacies of the interlocking mechanisms of the utilisation of food, of reproduction, of protection, of behaviour...prove to be amenable to intelligent explication and to exhibit an inherent rationality different from but just as impressive in their own way as the elegant equations of fundamental physics. In this context, too, we can echo Einstein's aphorism, 'The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility'" (Ref 6, p.41).

Even pollen, which Darwin apparently dismissed as "extravagant and even wasteful" (Ref 3, p.30) provides Carbon-14 measurements that have allowed scientists to date sedimentary deposits. Of course, the list goes on. Beyond biological data recorders, geological phenomena have been of vital importance for gaining an understanding of plate tectonics and ground subduction (Ref 3, p.48). The earth's core generates magnetic fields that become 'frozen' over time providing scientists with an accurate 'barcode' for measuring the spreading of the ocean floor from deep oceanic ridges (Ref 3, p.51). Our own solar system is equally open for study and measurement. Total solar eclipses have allowed physicists to determine the chemical composition of our own sun while crucially confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity (Ref 3, pp.12-17).

Ever since Gustav Holst composed his symphony of the planets, it has become all to clear that no other planet or moon in our solar system has close to the right conditions for sustaining life and allowing scientific discovery. Writing for the Washington Times, Phillip Gold commented,

"For the cosmos is more than a spectacle- the same in all directions- that we view through an atmosphere that is, most fortunately for us, transparent. The universe is also a laboratory. Studying what it does, from our vantage point, unlocks its secrets far more effectively than it might, were we to study elsewhere" (Ref 7).

Likewise Eduardo Llull wrote of the earth as "an extraordinary blue dot in the vast universe" with its special and unique position in our solar system giving us an optimal ability to "explore the far reaches of the universe as well as the intricate detail in our own backyard" (Ref 8). As biologist Michael Denton has so emphatically demonstrated, man is ideally suited in all his characteristics to make the probe the world around him and to decipher the inner most workings of the universe. The importance of these capabilities is all too evident when one considers how the controlled use of fire has played such a critical role in man's use of the earth's resources:

"because the smallest sustainable fire is about 50 centimeters across, only an organism of approximately our dimensions and design- about 1.5 to 2 meters in height with mobile arms about 1 meter long ending in manipulative tools- can handle fire....So we must be at least the size we are to use fire, to utilize tools, to have a sophisticated technology, to have a knowledge of chemistry and electricity and explore the world" (Ref 9, p.243).

Writing in 'Heaven And Earth', science photographer David Malin drew attention to how humans lie almost halfway in scale between the smallest and the largest things we know- halfway between the atoms that make up DNA and the galaxies that lie as remnants of the cosmic expansion (Ref 10, p.10). What evolutionary importance can we attribute to man's immense suitability for acquiring knowledge from his cosmic abode? According to theologian and physicist John Polkinghorne, none:

"Our surplus intellectual capacity, enabling us to comprehend the microworld of quarks and gluons and the macroworld of big bang cosmology, is on such a scale that it beggars belief that this is simply a fortunate by-product of the struggle for life" (Ref 11, pp. 2-3).

Malin likewise made note of such evolutionary irrelevancy:

"For thousands of generations we have prospered knowing nothing of the stars or the galaxies beyond. Even the Sun and the Moon were mysterious until the invention of the telescope. Now we know of the existence of billions of galaxies, each containing myriads of Sun-like stars. None of this knowledge directly affects our daily lives, but we would be immeasurably poorer without it" (Ref 10, p.10)

For the twenty scientists who elucidated the mathematical requirements of the genetic code over 50 years ago, one can only ascribe their achievement to the openness of our world for discovery and minds whose probing capabilities do not derive from an evolutionary need. In the words of Polkinghorne, ours is a world filled with, "insights of rational beauty [and] finely-tuned fruitfulness" (Ref 11, p.24).

References
1. A full account of the Tie Club and the story of how the genetic code was deciphered can be found at http://www.ambion.com/tieclub

2. Abraham Pais (1982), Subtle is the Lord, The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford University Press, New York

3. Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards (2004), The Privileged Planet, How Our Place In The Cosmos Is Designed For Discovery, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington D.C, New York

4. Journey Of Man- The Story Of The Human Species; Hosted by Spencer Wells, 2003; Tigris Productions for PBS Home Video

5. David Raup and Steven Stanley (1971), Principles of Paleontology, W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco

6. Arthur Peacocke (2002), Paths From Science Towards God, One World Publications, 2nd Ed, Oxford, UK

7. Phillip Gold (2004), The Universe- A Laboratory Designed With Us In Mind?, Washington Times, 18th April, 2004

8. Eduardo Llull (2004) Our Privileged Planet, Human Events, Published on 8th March 2004. See full article on http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=3222

9. Michael Denton (1998), Nature's Destiny: How The Laws of Biology, Reveal Purpose in the Universe, 1st Edition Published by the Free Press, New York

10. See David Malin's discussion in Heaven and Earth: Unseen by the Naked Eye, Phaidon Press, UK, 2004

11. John Polkinghorne (2003), Belief in God in an Age of Science, Published by Yale Nota Bene, Yale University Press, New Haven