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There are metabolic processes in which ATP is synthesised without the involvement of ATP synthase. The best examples are, in fact, two steps in the glycolytic pathway, catalysed by phosphoglycerate kinase and pyruvate kinase. This is why, in the absence of any aerobic metabolism, many organisms (like yeast for example) can grow quite happily, producing two ...

If the process of evolution is driven by completely random process... It's not. The evolution of "better" protein (and other) molecules happens because of selection, a very non-random process. The repeated selection of better molecules, and then of the variants of the better molecules, repeated many times, will lead to "good" molecules (in the sense ...

Yes, there are cases where one gene has become two. Or, at least, where multiple functions carried out by a single protein, the product of one gene, are carried out by distinct proteins, the products of different genes, in another species. One case I have personally worked with is the bacterial SelB protein. It is essential for selenoprotein biosynthesis ...

Since we only have one planet that we know of with life, it's a bit difficult to make good estimates on the probability of various events in the history of life. To make a good estimate, you'd want to have thousands of planets very similar to earth to compare. Since we don't have access to that kind of data, one proxy which you can look at is how long did ...

Exactly how genetic material changes from one generation to the next is a very complex subject. But essentially you are right. The change in genes from one generation to the next is not only mutations though. It is also mixing of the genes carried by the male and the genes carried by the female. The selection process is also very complex, and sexual ...