The Ribosome, RNA, and the Architecture of the Living Cell A Revision of Conventional Molecular Biology

Conventional molecular biology presents the cell as a factory: DNA is the archive ofblueprints, RNA is the messenger, and the ribosome is the automatic machine that readsthe instructions and assembles the protein [1]. This article questions this model. Basedon thermodynamics, gel physics [26, 23], electric fields, and the threshold model [13], itis argued that the ribosome should rather be understood as an enzyme than as a machine[39, 7], that RNA is a permanent imprint—not a transient messenger—and that the cell at itscore is a cycle of recycling, where DNA functions as a reserve library consulted only whenthe cycle breaks down [12, 29]. The article unfolds the consequences for the four-componentmodel [14] and discusses how the threshold model can be applied to understand disease,aging, and healing as shifts in the recycling balance [30, 20].