LoneShaman
Member
This response to Shapiro pretty much nails it on the protein issue.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/01/on_protein_orig055471.htmlI know of many processes that people talk about as though they can do the job of inventing new proteins (and of many papers that have resulted from such talk), but when these ideas are pushed to the point of demonstration, they all seem to retreat into the realm of the theoretical. Having followed this debate for some time now, and having made several experimental contributions to it, Ann and I have become convinced that none of the current naturalistic ideas about the origin of protein folds or the functional diversification of existing folds actually works in any general sense.
But of course, as experimentalists we are very willing to see the evidence that might prove us wrong.