From Robert D. McFadden at the New York Times:
Günter Blobel, a molecular biologist who was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering that proteins in any living cell have virtual ZIP codes that guide them to where they can help regulate body tissues, organs and chemistry, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 81.
…
The mystery Dr. Blobel confronted was how cells control their internal traffic, so that large proteins can get through tightly sealed membranes surrounding their birthplace and then travel to sites within the cell, or even through cell walls on intercellular trips through the body, where they can find specific worksites, called organelles (little organs) and penetrate them to perform assigned tasks. More.
The reader who sent us the link notes, “The man’s life work seems very IDish. He discovered there is a universal ZIP code system that cells use to navigate around the body, operating without issue for millions of years. That doesn’t sound like random evolution to me.”
At this point, it probably doesn’t sound random to very many people at all but—depending on where you work—if you want to keep your job, you just have to emit that stuff, right?
In 2005, Blobel was among the Nobelists sent a letter warning against teaching intelligent design to US governors.
His Nobel bio.
See also: And now, the internet of cells
and
Researcher: Genome not an unstructured strand but “a highly structured and meaningful design”