Page 161 - The Creation Of The Universe

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) 159

Weak Bonds
Covalent bonds are not the only type of chemical bonding that keeps
the compounds of life stable. There is another and different category of
bond known as "weak bonds".
Such bonds are about twenty times weaker than covalent bonds, hence
their name; but they are no less crucial to the processes of organic chem-
istry. It is due to this weak bonding that the proteins that make up the
building-blocks of living things are able to maintain their complex and vi-
tally important three-dimensional structures.
To explain this, we have to talk briefly about the structure of proteins.
Proteins are usually referred to as a "chain" of amino acids. While this
metaphor is essentially correct, it is also incomplete. It's incomplete be-
cause for most people a "chain of amino acids" conjures up the mental im-
age of something like a string of pearls whereas the amino acids that make
up proteins have a three-dimensional structure more like a tree with leafy
branches.
Covalent bonds are what hold the atoms of amino acids together. Weak
bonds are what maintain the essential three-dimensional structure of those
acids. No proteins could exist without these weak bonds. And of course
without proteins, there could be no life.
Now the interesting part of this business is that the temperature range
in which weak bonds are able to perform their function is the same as the
one prevailing on Earth. This is rather odd because the physical and chem-
ical natures of covalent bonds versus weak bonds are entirely different
things and independent of one another. In other words, there's no intrinsic
reason why they should both require the same temperature range. And yet
they do: Both types of bonds can only be formed and remain stable with-
in this narrow temperature range. And if they did not–if covalent bonds re-
quired a range of temperatures wildly different from that of weak bonds,
say–then it would be impossible to construct the complex three-dimen-
sional structures that proteins require.
Everything that we have seen concerning the extraordinary chemical