The Inspirational Design & Presence of Phosphate

This entry summarizes four YouTube Videos by Reasons to Believe, conversations between Barrie Winn and Fazale Rana about phosphates, found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReasonsToBelieve1/videos

Some information also comes from The Inspirational Design of DNA, by Fazale R. Rana, PhD, published in Chapter 3 of Building Bridges, 2018 by Reasons to Believe.

Phosphate is indispensable for life.  It is uniquely designed to be used in a variety of applications in living organisms; no other substance has the chemistry to accomplish this wide range of functions. You will find phosphates in cell membranes, DNA, RNA, ATP, ADP, as well as the teeth and bones of vertebrates.

Phosphate is best able to ionize in the same pH range (around 7) in which cell reactions operate; this is crucial for phosphate to retain a negative charge while bonding with two sugars in the deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) backbone. This negative charge stabilizes the DNA backbone by preventing water molecules from breaking it up while also insuring that the DNA stays within the cell membrane.  Phosphate chemical analogs cannot bond to both sugars in the same manner. Phosphite and sulfate can form two bonds but would do so without the necessary negative charge remaining. Arsenate is not able to form bonds with organic materials and bonds to nitrate would not be stable.

In addition to being perfect in DNA, phosphate is also the best molecule to provide energy for metabolic functions. All organisms, from the simplest bacteria to humans, use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as their primary energy currency. Phosphate is also found as part of the calcium apatite crystal structure in bones and teeth of vertebrates.

Phosphate is obviously crucial for life on earth. It is a component of vertebrate backbones as well as the backbone of DNA; it is also the basis for the physiology of every organism. For it to be used in so many applications, it should have been easy to access on the early earth as the first life emerged, but it wasn’t; this is known as “The Phosphate Problem”. Phosphorus doesn’t exist in a stable gas form or even as a stable liquid element or compound. Given that all the other major elements necessary for life (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen) exist in the gaseous phase as stable substances, it is almost impossible to see how phosphorus could have participated in reactions with the other necessary elements. Phosphorus was probably present on the early earth as apatite or phosphide compounds, but both of these are extremely insoluble solids. To make them soluble requires conditions (like a very low pH or a very high temperature) that would not support other reactions required to make the molecules necessary for life.  What is necessary to make phosphates available to reactions in solution would undermine any other kind of chemical evolution. 

We have found some pathways and conditions that can increase the solubility of phosphorus compounds in other solutions, such as urea, but all of these require intense human intervention.  It is highly unlikely that these pathways existed on early earth without a mind intervening. 

As we continue to do research, the origin and concentration of phosphorus on earth is looking more and more like a miracle.  Phosphides are found in meteorites, but it is difficult to get these to become phosphates under the conditions of early earth; these reactions also require attentive lab intervention; requiring a mind to make sure they occur. The trendline of research confirms the increasingly difficult task of finding a chemical pathway necessary for phosphate to be available on the early earth.

Even the presence of phosphorus on earth in a relatively large concentration looks as if a mind was required. Phosphorus is produced by nucleosynthesis and is spread throughout the universe when a star explodes. Recent research is finding that phosphorus creation is inconsistent in supernovae; it is found in some explosions but not in others! Even though phosphorus is not ubiquitous in the universe; the earth seems to have an exceptionally high concentration and it seems that it was delivered in a “geological instant”.  The earth’s crust is relatively abundant in phosphorus; much of it delivered by meteorites in a relatively short  period of time.  We were either exceptionally lucky, or the phosphorus on earth is another example of the incredible design we are discovering as we investigate the universe.

It is reasonable to conclude that the presence and amount of phosphorus on earth was designed.  Not only does it look as if the presence of phosphorus is unusual, but only a mind could take something that would be hard to access and make it a major component necessary for life. Phosphate provides us with another example of nature declaring the glory of God.