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bubliksmaz t1_ish4a8y wrote

Reply to comment by goltz20707 in TIL: Sperms were thought to move by wiggling their tails side-to-side, like eels, for 350 years. But research shows that they roll as they move forward like a spinning top. by vect77

It's not the complexity that precludes certain things evolving - organisms are fucking complex enough. It's the fact that evolution needs to happen in tiny incremental steps, each of which are beneficial to the organism. For legs, that's easy: First they're just fins for swimming, then maybe they're used to drag ones body across a short stretch of very shallow water, then they gradually take more of the weight to make locomotion more efficient. For a wheel and axle... nah.

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goltz20707 t1_ishbsqj wrote

I guess what I meant is that a protein-proton motor that uses things like van del Waals forces and molecular mechanical mechanisms to create motion cannot work at the visible scale. I agree that complexity is no barrier for evolution—look at clotting factor chemistry—but I can’t imagine an incremental path to “wheels”. (I will admit it may be possible.)

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nsaisspying t1_isiyuq1 wrote

Have you read the book Climbing Mount Improbable?

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