Ox Phos Wars
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in eternity past, listening in to the Creator as he laid out various plans for his coming creation. Wouldn’t it be exciting just to get a tiny glimpse into the (scientific) mind of God, as if that were possible? Yet, isn’t that what scientists are doing today as they probe the frontiers of science? Let’s look at one minuscule facet of God’s creative mind.
Note to readers: this topic is exceedingly complex with lots of unfamiliar words; I’ve simplified as much as possible. It’s not necessary that you follow the logic and understand everything, but if you come away with a feeling of awe toward our Creator, I will have accomplished the mission.
Figure 1
The Ox Phos Wars, short for oxidative phosphorylation, took place in the 1960s and early 1970s. It was a war of scientific ideas; no shots were fired. But there were casualties. The combatants were biochemists. At stake was nothing less than understanding the origin of all life and the fundamental design of biochemical systems – not only on Earth but anywhere else in the universe. Battle lines were drawn; on one side stood the well accepted processes of natural evolution, on the other, a supernatural Mind, aka, Intelligent Designer.
We now know a typical human body contains 37 trillion cells, give or take. Within each cell are thousands of double membrane-bound organelles called mitochondria. A major function of mitochondria is to utilize oxygen available within the cell to convert chemical energy from food (usually sugars) inside the cell into ATP, a form of chemical energy, similar in concept to a battery, usable to the host cell. Ox Phos is the conversion process.
Ox Phos falls under the biochemical theory called chemiosmosis. (Are you still with me?); let’s begin with two simple functions, eating and breathing. Food is necessary to sustain life (no surprise there); your dinner will eventually drill down (be digested) through the bodily system and end up as 6-carbon glucose (sugar) molecules (C6H12O6) inside the mitochondria. Breathing delivers oxygen to the lungs, then the bloodstream, and eventually to the cellular mitochondria.
Healthy cells need a source of usable energy, ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate). The job of mitochondria is to convert unusable energy (from your dinner) into usable ATP energy. That’s where the Ox Phos system comes in. Perhaps a picture will help (Figure 1).
You are looking at a schematic (Fig. 1) of a highly magnified slice of the membrane of a mitochondria. The five complex, colorful, twisted blobs are proteins that function as molecular motors. The job of the first four (from left to right) is to transport electrons (H-) horizontally in what is called the “electron transport chain” (RTC). Energy from the ETC then powers the protein into a second function called “proton pump”, whereby it pumps protons (H+), positively charged hydrogen ions, from the inner membrane to the outer membrane. That’s what all the H+ are about. As the H+ increase in number, they form what is called a “proton gradient” which flows toward the fifth protein on the far right, an enzyme protein called ATP Synthase. Let’s zero in on the ETC (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Two new names appear in Figure 2, they are the specialized molecules NADH and FADH2. These molecules transport Hydrogen atoms from the sugar molecule to the proteins. Here, the Hydrogen atom gives up its only electron H- to the electron transport chain, leaving behind the positively charged H+ proton, which is then pumped through the proton-pumping proteins. Finally, lets look at the special enzyme called ATP Synthase (Figure 3).
Figure 3
ATP Synthase is a protein enzyme, a complex, efficient molecular motor. Its job is to convert ADP into ATP; as a motor, it is powered by the proton gradient (the H+ protons running along the arrow through the yellow [a] section).
Impressed? You should be. Can you imagine such an ingenious use of proton gradients and elegant molecular logic to be the result of mere chance, nature hitting the lottery (so to speak)? I can’t, but molecular biologists hang on to the hope that one day science will uncover the mechanisms behind Ox Phos. The discovery of natural proton gradients in deep sea thermal vents, their prevailing theory, is not enough evidence to lead to the elegant design and complexity seen in these figures. It is a bridge-too-long for evolutionists; only an intelligent designer could come up with such an elaborate, irreducibly complex scheme as this. One definition for “irreducible complexity” is: “the idea that certain biological systems cannot evolve by small successive modifications to pre-existing functional systems through the mechanism of natural selection.” This is another way of saying evolution has reached a dead-end and cannot explain a biological system. “Molecular Motors” are a poster child for irreducible complexity.
Figure 1 is a picture of not one, but five separate molecular motors, not just working as individuals, but as a team, in co-operation with one another. Miraculous!
“For what can be known about God is plain to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, we are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19,20)
