Small Brains Considered - 11

Fig. 1 Same Differences

I. Background

The ribosome was a focus of a previous post in this series.

A ribosome is made of rRNA but what does that look like?

Let's take a closer look at what rRNA is made of:

"Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes. Ribosomal RNA is transcribed from ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and then bound to ribosomal proteins to form small and large ribosome subunits. rRNA is the physical and mechanical factor of the ribosome that forces transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) to process and translate the latter into proteins.[1] Ribosomal RNA is the predominant form of RNA found in most cells; it makes up about 80% of cellular RNA despite never being translated into proteins itself. Ribosomes are composed of approximately 60% rRNA and 40% ribosomal proteins by mass." 

(Ribosomal RNA, emphasis added). The graphic at Fig. 1 shows us that rRNA is made of the same basic components that all RNA is made of (including ribosomal proteins mentioned in that quote) which is: the nucleotides "ACGU" (no "T").

II. What Does It Mean?

The "take home" is that any small brain in eukaryotic cells is a myth, because all parts of eukaryotes are composed of molecules, those molecules are composed of the same atoms that all of the genomes of eukaryotes are made of (DNA and RNA):

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MOLECULES

adenine (A) [C₅H₅N₅]

cytosine (C) [C₄H₅N₃O]

guanine (G) [C₅H₅N₅O]

thymine (T) [C₅H₆N₂O₂]

uracil (U) [C₄H₄N₂O₂]

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ATOMS

carbon (C)

hydrogen (H)

nitrogen (N)

oxygen (O)

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(and none of them are alive).

III. Yeah, But What Does it Mean?

It means "we don't know" (quoting Paul G. Falkowski in the video below), and that we should not make up doll stories (Small Brains Considered - 7).

Atoms and molecules are machines, ribosomes are machines, ribozymes are machines, genes are machines, and they are  not alive (The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine, 2). 

Thus, a question arises: Did Abiotic Intelligence Precede Biotic Intelligence?.

As I have said:

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2009:
Putting A Face on Machine Mutation
Which Came First - Cyborg Or Robot?
Putting A Face on Machine Mutation
Will Humans Evolve Into Machines?

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2010:
The Tiniest Scientists Are Very Old

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2011:
Which Came First - Cyborg Or Robot? - 2
Are Toxins of Power Machines or Organisms?

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2012:
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 2
Do Molecular Machines Deliver Toxins of Power?
Did Abiotic Intelligence Precede Biotic Intelligence?
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 3
The Life and Death of Bright Things

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2013:
Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 17
The Uncertain Gene thru The Uncertain Gene - 8 If Cosmology Is "Off," How Can Biology Be "On?"
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 4

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2014

On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5
On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6

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 IV. Closing Comments

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

The Dr. Falkowski video addresses "we don't know":

Dr. Paul Falkowski

"Andy. Thank you very much, Andy, and thanks for inviting me here. It's a pleasure. So I just want to begin this by thinking about a bridge. In this particular case, it's an obvious bridge. And if you think about evolution, you know where we've come to, but you don't know where we began. So origins of life is one of the most challenging problems facing science. Actually, as my friend and colleague Nick Lane says, it's the black hole of science. It's an embarrassment. And it's a very complicated problem." -Dr. Falkowski

(From video transcript, emphasis added).

So, any further questions should be directed to The Borg:

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