Small Brains Considered - 18

Fig. 1 Ribosome Psychons causing
 the Samba (in Sumba, Indonesia)?

The magic science people would believe that a ribosome is the reason people and trees can do the Samba in Sumba (Fig. 1).

If you are not aware of it yet, the ribosome is composed of RNA with two additional atom types, Magnesium and Phosphorus which work with your inner psychons and the 'Ether' to make you vibrate awesomely (The Advent Of The Sulfur Atom - 3).

'Scientists' of the 'Eugenics variety' have indicated in the past, and some still do, that this is because of 'psychons'.

Why these psychons are so prevalent in the thinking of some scientists, is that in effect they are the smallest of brains (the following is a glimpse of their consideration of the smallest brain, the psychon):

"About a hundred years ago, eugenicist journals reviewed books concerning the notion of how eugenicists should contemplate atoms, in whole or in part, when the subject of consciousness was being related to atoms:

'At this point the theories of philosophical physics are brought into the hypothesis. Matter is composed of electrons and protons, forming atoms and molecules which are themselves separated by the ether and through which, though widely spaced apart, they act upon one another. Protons and electrons are only modifications of the other. Thus matter being itself etherial can act upon the ether; and the cortical nerve endings, being material, set up etheric vibrations which are sent out radially through the ether, without the necessity of any definite paths.'

...

'Provided there be a psychic organ capable of picking up these vibrations and responding to them, capable also of emitting etheric vibrations to which the material brain will respond, we have an explanation of the possibility of Interaction. But what is to be the nature of the psychic organ thus postulated? Like the material brain,formed of protons and electrons, the psychic brain will also be formed of derivatives of ether, 'of etherial units of a finer order which may be called psychons. The structured protoplasmatic brain will have its counterpart in a psychoplasmic structure. Moreover, since protons and electrons which constitute protoplasmic structure are widely spaced apart there is no difficulty in the way of a conception of an interpenetrating psychoplasmic structure.'

...

'Tomorrow you will scarcely find a man who is up to the greatness of the new tasks, and I venture to say that the very best of our own time have not discharged themselves any too well of the difficulties they have encountered. The mass of knowledge which is now required exceeds our capacity for understanding. The time is no longer when everything was explained by the immobile and indivisible atom, by the cell and karyokinesis, transformism, gravity and Euclidian geometry. Science now is bordering on the infinite and the most powerful brain feels feeble in front of the tasks which are glimpsed.'

...

'Darwin's speculative gemmules of the nineteenth century have become the experimentally demonstrated genes of the twentieth century, and the reality of their existence in the cell is now as certain as that of the electrons in the atom. The fundamental importance of the gene in biology is certainly as great as that of the electron in physics and the atom in chemistry.'

...

'... the mechanistic view of life - that is the view that what we call life is merely the result of the spatial arrangement of certain atoms and molecules. Here he has the mechanists at his mercy, for as a professor of physics he is pitilessly severe on the bad physics and worse chemistry of the mechanistic biologists. In America the mechanistic view is rampant, in England and Europe generally it is being silently abandoned by the more thoughtful biologists.'

...

'The principle is not limited in this treatise to the organic world, but begins with our present theories of matter and force; and Smuts shows clearly how the combination and interaction of a group of electrons forms an atom which, as an entity, has wholly new and wholly different characters from the individual components. Thus the integration or combination of units gives something new. This is 'Holism.' The theory is carried through a series of inorganic forms to the organic, and reaches finally the evolution of man, and the evolution of society and societies. To the evolution student it provides a most helpful conception, and one would think that to most men this is one which should easily dispel all those confusions of thought which lead to our present-day controversies on the possible reconciliation of evolution beliefs with theistic and spiritual ideas about the universe.'

(The Eugenics Review, emphasis added; cf. PDF). So, 'wholly new'" and 'wholly different' electrons and protons were interested in making atoms and then contemplating how they could then change them via an atomic natural selection perhaps?

That is so yesterday?'"

(ibid @The Advent Of The Sulfur Atom - 3). As I answered the question about that being 'so yesterday' in that post:

"No, it is not exclusively 'yesterday', because we find that there is still a wide array of beliefs about the intelligence of atoms in the scientific community today; get your psychons on dude."

(ibid). The basic cognitive dynamic is to categorize the ribosome/RNAP realm as a machine:

"RNA polymerase (RNAP) is a complex molecular machine that governs gene expression and its regulation in all cellular organisms. To accomplish its function of accurately producing a full length RNA copy of a gene, RNAP performs a plethora of chemical reactions and undergoes multiple conformational changes in response to cellular conditions. At the heart of this machine is the active center - the engine, which is composed of distinct fixed and moving parts that serve as the ultimate acceptor of regulatory signals and target of inhibitory drugs. Recent advances in the structural and biochemical characterization of RNAP explain the active center at the atomic level and enable new approaches to understanding the entire transcription mechanism, its exceptional fidelity and control."

(The Molecular Engine of Transcription). My lawnmower does that to the grass every time I mow the lawn, however, unless I use teleology, I will never be able to convince you that my lawnmower evolved naturally:

“Teleology is like a mistress to the biologist; he dare not be seen with her in public but cannot live without her.” —J. B. S. Haldane

(Metaphor and Meaning in the Teleological Language of Biology). Further info on the impossibly complex mistress (The 99 Percent… of the Human Genome, Same gene can encode proteins with divergent functions).

Fig. 2 RNAP molecules too
small to be resolved

But I digress, so I will jump to the appendices.

Today's appendices (Bacillus albus, Caenibius tardaugens, Deefgea piscis, Echinicola soli, and Faecalibacillus intestinalis) detail the proteins, nucleotides, and yes the atoms that the ribosome counts, sorts, takes-out, plugs-in, and rearranges are detailed for your enjoyment.

I used those words to specify the appendices for four reasons: 1) that is their names; 2) so you know I can speak geek; 3) so you can see if you can remember all of those atoms, where they fit in a million-or-so array; and 4) so you too can be like a ribosome and "explain the ... exceptional fidelity and control" done by the tiny RNAP/ribosome that is too small for the electron microscope to see in Fig. 2., a micro-graph.

 The bottom 'line' is that a small group of atoms can with "exceptional fidelity and control" do all of your genetic needs for you.

I gotta go mow the lawn (BTW eugenics doods also sell bridges: The Toxic Bridge To Everywhere).

The previous post in this series is here.

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