The Flagellum Unspun

Just as Ahmed points out the reuse of systems is not the issue, it is the new components that come out of thin air.

BradDon't bother.I can guarentee you that it is not a physico-chemistry answer.I have worked on voltage gated potasium channels and I can assure you that the origin of similarity between human neuronal potasium channels and bacterial potasium channels is either evolution or creaiton. It is not physico-chemical.There is a huge variety of distinct families of channels but each family is undoubtedly related within itself by E or C history. They have incredibly conserved sequences that are inconceivable to imagine arriving convergently or by absolute necessity. They have the same pore helices and voltage sensing helices. God or evolution has clearly reused the basic deisgn.But the biochemical funciton is essentially identical. The voltage gated channels in bacteria act as voltage gated channels. There are more reasons to have channles than being a neuron. Every cell in your body has ion channels in it to maintain ion concentrations.[This message has been edited by Tranquility Base, 12-10-2002]