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The Elimination of Mutations by the Cell’s
Elaborate Protein Quality Control Factory:
A Major Problem for Neo-Darwinism

Jerry Bergman

Proper protein folding requires specific “chaperones” and other molecular machinery called “folding factors.” Both the genomic code and the folding machinery are required in order to produce a functional protein. The cell also has an elaborate quality control system to ensure that the cellular parts are manufactured to the required specifications. Recent research has added new levels of complexity to our current level of understanding of cell biology quality control. One important role of this newly discovered system is the removal and recycling of improperly folded proteins caused by any number of factors including mutations. Mutations are assumed by neo-Darwinists to be the ultimate source of all new genetic information. In order to produce a new protein by mutations, however, both appropriate folding and quality control systems also must adapt. Without them, a mutant is useless, even if it produces a selective advantage. Quality control results in many, if not most, mutated proteins being repaired or cut up and recycled, even if they are beneficial to the organism. This detail manifests irreducible complexity that favors intelligent design.

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A Subaqueous Tectonic and Hydrothermal Origin
for Colossal Cave, Arizona

Carl R. Froede, Jr.

Colossal Cave is a feature of both archeological and geological interest. Only recently has the cave system been systematically explored, and much work still remains to thoroughly document this extensive feature. The formation and development of the cave has not been adequately addressed in uniformitarian geological literature. Apparently, the naturalist interpretation cannot easily explain the problems that “uniformitarian time” creates in understanding the geologic history of the area and the formation of Colossal Cave. In contrast, Colossal Cave is easily addressed by the Creation-Flood framework. The uplift of the adjacent Rincon Mountains during the late stages of the Flood caused the recently deposited and semi-lithified sedimentary overburden to slide off and pile up around the base of the uplifted metamorphic core complex. During this event, the strata were subjected to the expulsion of both interstitial and hydrothermal fluids, which created preferential pathways through the carbonate strata and resulted in the formation of numerous cave systems. Following Floodwater withdrawal, speleothem development occurred in the open passageways where overlying carbonate source rocks were present. The eventual drying of the climate has resulted in dust accumulation rather than further carbonate mineral deposition.

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Pioneering 14C Dating of Wyoming Amber and
Its Implications for a Young Earth and Global Catastrophism

Hugh R. Miller, J.R. Michaels, and Matt M. Miller

The geologic column not only has a problem with coal containing anomalously large amounts of 14C, but also with 14C in dinosaur bones, carbonized wood and amber as well. The purpose of this paper is to 1) review radiocarbon dating of carbonized wood and dinosaur bones, 2) introduce radiocarbon and infrared studies of amber, and 3) correlate radiocarbon dates of ambers and other natural resins with real time. This is the first known instance of “true amber” being directly dated. 14C dates for amber were at the upper limit of the AMS dating method. The Hanson Ranch amber buried with a triceratops is slightly younger than Baltic amber used as controls, but all true ambers are about the same radiocarbon age as the coals used as blanks. Dinosaur bones and carbonized wood were all within the range of both the conventional and AMS methods. The primary chemical in the Hanson Ranch amber is succinic acid and its salts, succinates and succinites the same as Baltic amber, based on infrared studies. The dinosaurs and amber on the Hanson ranch appear to have been deposited catastrophically.

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Hanson Ranch Wyoming
Dinosaur and Amber
Excavation of 1996

Hugh R. Miller, J.R. Michaels, and Matt M. Miller

The Hanson Ranch in Roxson, Wyoming is located in the eastern part of the state some 80 miles west of Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota, and 15 miles west of Route 85 on Cheyenne River Road. Research was first conducted on this ranch by Dr. Kraig L. Dertsler of New Orleans University, whose team excavated a triceratops. Tiny amber particles were also discovered with the dinosaur. A few years later, our team excavated similar amber particles adjacent to this site, but in the same stratum with the triceratops. This work is published elsewhere in this issue of the Creation Research Society Quarterly. The purposes of this photo essay are to show some of the interesting formations, including hoodos, that exist on this ranch; some of the fossil material, like amber, that was C-14 dated; and a few of the many dinosaur bone fragments and carbonized wood that await C-14 dating if funding sources can be identified. C. W. Holroyd and co-workers discussed other research potentials at this site in a previous issue of CRSQ (33:136).

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Isotopic Analysis of Fruitland Formation Coal Bed
Carbon Dioxide and Methane

John R. Doughty

Radiocarbon is found throughout the geological record, and the confirmation of this hypothesis in the cases investigated in this paper strengthens the young earth creationist paradigm. This research builds upon the work done with coal and carbon dioxide and extends it to the analysis of coal bed methane gas wells. The resulting data indicate that the carbon dioxide and methane gases trapped in the Fruitland Formation are thousands, not millions of years old.

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More Precise Calculations of the Cost of Substitution

Walter ReMine

This paper extends the applicability and accuracy of the cost of substitution beyond its traditional range, and demonstrates a useful calculation method. Using my previous clarification of the fundamental cost concept, this paper derives a method for computing the cost of substitution under wide genetic circumstances, including haploids; and diploids with varying degrees of dominance, inbreeding, and with a sex-linked locus. Unlike the traditional approaches, this method is accurate even under fluctuations in parameter values (such as population size, selection coefficient, dominance, and inbreeding coefficient). To display general- purpose results, the parameters are then held constant, and the total cost of substitution is graphed. This includes cases where the selection coefficient is not small and where the traditional equations become highly inaccurate. It is shown that neither environmental change nor soft selection reduces cost problems, at least in single substitutions.

Note added in publication: This paper offers previously unpublished clarifications, derivations and graphs, and refutes widely accepted solutions to a central problem in evolutionary genetics known as Haldane’s Dilemma. It was submitted to the journal Theoretical Population Biology, where all the peer-reviewers found no errors. Nonetheless, they rejected it from publication on the grounds that it is not a “sufficient advance,” and “there is little interest in this subject today among population biologists; it is one of those subjects which has sunk almost beyond trace.” This has all been very unfortunate, as there continues to be widespread misunderstanding within the scientific community regarding these important matters, even among those who have studied the cost literature for years. It is hoped that the clarifications presented in this paper will eventually reach the greater scientific community.   Walter J. ReMine

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