Orgel's First Rule
"Whenever a spontaneous process is too slow or too inefficient a protein will evolve to speed it up or make it more efficient."
This "rule" comments on the fact that there is a great number of proteins in all organisms which fulfil a number of different functions through modifying chemical or physical processes. An example would be an enzyme that catalyses a chemical reaction that would take place too slow to benefit an organism without being sped up by this enzyme.
Read more about this topic: Orgel's Rule
Famous quotes containing the word rule:
“It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion. Thought is the property of him who can entertain it; and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but, as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)