Page 68 - The Miraculous Machine that Works for an Entire Lifetime: Enzyme

Harun Yahya

Chapel Hill and also a member of National Academy of Sciences. A

statement he issued in 1998 helps us obtain a better understanding of
the extraordinary speed possessed by enzymes. In his earlier research,
Prof. Wolfenden calculated that in water containing no enzymes—in
other words, uncatalyzed water—the biological transformation essen-
tial in the formation of the fundamental building blocks of DNA and
RNA would take 78 million years. But his subsequent discovery was
even more astonishing. In his own words: "Now we've found one that's
10,000 times slower than that . . . Its half-time—the time it takes for half

the substance to be consumed—is 1 trillion years, 100 times longer than
the lifetime of the universe. Enzymes can make this reaction happen in
10 milliseconds." 42
Wolfenden published this discovery, made together with Chetan
Lad and Nicholas H. Williams from Sheffield University in England, on
the National Academy of Sciences website on 29 April 1998.
The enzyme that attracted Wolfenden's attention was phos-
phatase. The catalytic power of phosphatase increased the speed of re-
action in water of a chemical group known as phosphate monoesters to
an extraordinary degree. The phosphatase enzymes acting on these mo-

Activation energy
Reactions Uncatalyzed
Free energy Catalyzed

Products

In the absence of phosphatase enzymes, which enable reactions to occur in 10 mil-
liseconds, it would take 1 trillion years to consume just half the substance entering
the reaction. That figure is 100 times greater than the age of the universe.

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