“No one has been able to define life, and some people will tell you it’s not possible to,” says New York Times columnist and science reporter Carl Zimmer on Unexplainable — Vox’s podcast…
Origin Of Life
Origin of life as a chemical Eden?
Requarth: “Russell’s conception of our species, along with every other living thing, as mere energy patterns, ultimately born of rogue fluctuations in the Universe’s infancy, might make us feel a little less special.” Maybe that’s the point of many origin of life theories…
James Tour on the origin of life at Socrates in the City
“A conversation between Dr. James Tour and Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas on the topic “How Did Life Come into Being?” Dr. Tour is … widely regarded as among the leading nano-scientists in the world.”
Paul Davies on the gap between life and non-life
A reader notes that Davies says at 37m30s: “What life makes is consistent with physics and chemistry, but is not dictated by physics and chemistry.” Well, by a process of elimination, doesn’t that leave information? Design? And how are things designed without intelligence? At this point, one can only say, Keep talking.
Tour deals with the rhetorical tactics of a critic
HT Q, here is Dr Tour’s response to a critic’s rhetoric (with some addressing of substantial matters through interacting with an expert caught in the cross fire): It is sad to see that this had to be dealt with. As a point of reference, let us highlight first duties and principles of right reason, extending Read More…
At SciTech Daily: The Fountain of Life: Scientists Uncover the “Chemistry Behind the Origin of Life”
The requirement of a particular sequence of amino acids endows the protein with vast amounts of information, far beyond what could be “chanced upon” by any natural process within the history of the entire universe.
Tour further replies to his critics
Here: Let’s add a clip: And: Notice the balance of substance vs personalities. END
At Live Science: Massive tentacled microbe may be direct ancestor of all complex life
Nicoletta Lanese writes: Ancient microbes whose existence predates the rise of nucleus-carrying cells on Earth may hold the secrets to how such complex cells first came to be. Now, for the first time, scientists have grown a large enough quantity of these microbes in the lab to study their internal structure in detail, Science reported. Researchers Read More…
From EurekAlert: Meteorites plus gamma rays could have given Earth the building blocks for life
“This study provides evidence that gamma ray-catalyzed reactions can produce amino acids, possibly contributing to the origin of life on Earth, the researchers say.”
“Every Cell Comes from a Preexistent Cell”
C. S. Lewis: “Is it not equally reasonable to look outside Nature for the real Originator of the natural order?”
At Live Science: 3.5 billion-year-old rock structures are one of the oldest signs of life on Earth
Stephanie Pappas writes: Fossils called stromatolites from Western Australia were created by microbes 3.48 billion years ago. Layered rocks in Western Australia are some of Earth’s earliest known life, according to a new study. The fossils in question are stromatolites, layered rocks that are formed by the excretions of photosynthetic microbes. The oldest stromatolites that Read More…
At Phys.org: New study finds our ancient relatives were not so simple after all
Lacking a naturalistic mechanism for the generation of the new information of novel features, the idea of the “loss of features” is put forward as a driving factor for supposed evolutionary advance.
At The Scientist: The Long and Winding Road to Eukaryotic Cells
“Despite recent advances in the study of eukaryogenesis, much remains unresolved about the origin and evolution of the most complex domain of life.”
At SciTech Daily: Traces of Ancient Ocean Discovered on Mars – This Means a “Higher Potential for Life”
“A major goal for the Mars Curiosity rover missions is to look for signs of life,” Cardenas said. “It’s always been looking for water, for traces of habitable life. This is the biggest one yet. It’s a giant body of water, fed by sediments coming from the highlands, presumably carrying nutrients.”
At Universe Today: Maybe We Don’t See Aliens Because Nobody Wants to Come Here
“For Hart, the only explanation for the lack of evidence of alien civilizations is that there are none.”