Origin Of Life

In “Astrobiology: Life’s beginnings” (Nature 476, 30–31, 04 August 2011), origin of life expert Robert Shapiro tells us “that laboratory experiments don’t always translate to nature”:

Deamer’s thesis diverges from the standard RNA-world concept. He focuses not on the generation of a naked RNA-like polymer, but on the formation of a simple cell-like compartment, or vesicle. Modern cells are enclosed by a complex fatty membrane, which prevents leakage. Vesicles with similar properties have been formed in the lab from certain fatty acids. Deamer holds that the spontaneous formation of vesicles, into which RNA could be incorporated, was a crucial step in life’s origin. Unfortunately, his theory retains the improbable generation of self-replicating polymers such as RNA.
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At one time, life was simple, and defining it was easy. NASA defined life as: “a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.” [1] In that case, what are they to make of recent findings that life’s simplest cells evolve mainly by swapping genes, and not through Darwinian competition? [2] Can they forbid teaching that in publicly funded schools – Texas Darwin lobby-style? But then …

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In “The Role of Creation in Science: The Real Story, a Breath of Fresh Air” (Evolution News & Views, July 2, 2011), science historian Michael Flannery remarks on Jonathan Bartlett’s “The Doctrine of Creation and the Making of Modern Biology,”

In a recent article at the Classical Conversations web site, Jonathan Bartlett authored an interesting commentary on creation as a concept for and catalyst to scientific inquiry and advance with “The Doctrine of Creation and the Making of Modern Biology.” Given the persistent claim by so-called “defenders” of quality science education such as Eugenie Scott, Paul Hanle, and others that only natural processes functioning via unbroken natural laws in nonpurposeful ways counts as science and that anything else is a “science stopper,” everyone–especially those least likely to do so–would do well to take page from Bartlett’s page of history. Read More ›

In “Calcified clue to ancient photosynthesis” (Nature, 2011/07/06), Katharine Sanderson reports:

Mat of microbes contains calcium carbonate that could only have formed through photosynthesis.The most direct evidence yet for ancient photosynthesis has been uncovered in a fossil of a matted carpet of microbes that lived on a beach 3.3 billion years ago. Read More ›

From Carl Zimmer at Discover Magazine’s “The Loom” blog, we learn, “Last year arsenic-based life, now chlorine-based life” (12011/07/06)

I checked in with Steven Benner, a chemist who has raised a lot of concerns about the arsenic-life research last year. What did he think of the new research?“It looks true,” he said. Read More ›

Some participants were flagged down at the airport afterward. Here are some great interviews (vid) at Ricochet (Claire Berlinski, editor), a “secret” conference of prominent idea people who are fed up with the cult. These feature Robert Marks and Rabbi Moshe Averick. Read More ›

“The Unexplainable Interactive Computer Systems in Life”  from Don Johnson on Vimeo: Johnson is the author of Probability’s Nature and the Nature of Probability.

Donald E. Johnson compiled a handy list of people who, beginning over a century ago, have suggested that extraterrestrials could have started life on Earth: S. Arrhenius., Worlds in the Making, 1908. Francis Crick, “The Origin of the Genetic Code” J. Mol Biol: 38, 1968, p. 367-379. Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe, 1983, pp. 16-17. Bernstein. Max, Jason Dworkin, Scott Sandford, George Cooper, and Louis Allamandola, “Racemic amino acids from the ultraviolet photolysis of intestellar ice analogue,” Nature”: 416, 3/28/02 – from Probability’s Nature and the Nature of Probability, p. 32. Even Richard Dawkins has stated that such intelligent design ay be possible (Ben Stein, Expelled: The Movie, 2008.), p. 32 And if so many great scientists entertain the idea, Read More ›

In 2000, a man gathered two lbs of rock from a meteorite that crashed into the ice on Tagish Lake, in northern British Columbia, Canada. He kept them frozen until, in 2008, a Canadian research consortium bought them. In “Meteorite hints at life’s origins: As debate continues to swirl around arsenic-loving bacteria, a space rock yields new astrobiological clues,” Tia Ghose (The Scientist , June 9, 2011) tells us, Organic compounds from a meteorite may hold clues to the origin of life on Earth, according to a study published today (June 9) in Science. Water on the asteroid reacted with the rock to form organic compounds—including many scientists believe are the crucial ingredients that sparked life in Earth’s primordial oceans Read More ›

Here (The Allgemeiner,, June 12, 2011). A good question, say many. Long gone are the days when Eldredge and Steve Gould hung out together, scoffing at Darwin dogma. It all got kind of dangerous later so …, but we digress.

Reb Moshe’s big thing is logic:

Please focus on this crucial distinction. Logic is not science. Logic is a commodity which cannot be hoarded or monopolized by any particular occupation or profession. Logic is an intellectual tool available equally to both scientist and non-scientist. If the issue at hand is not a question of scientific data or knowledge itself, but a logical comparison, deduction, or conclusion involving scientific data or knowledge, scientific credentials are for the most part irrelevant.

Commenting on Eldredge’s position, he homes in on the critical question: Is Eldredge in fact an utterly convinced Darwin believer? Is there truly a great long beard growing around his heart? Well, the Reb certainly doesn’t put it quite like that; he observes: Read More ›

In “Science Papers Challenge Claims that ‘Alien’ Bacteria use Arsenic Instead of Phosphorous,” Casey Luskin (Evolution News & Views, June 11, 2011) discusses the recent challenges to the claim that bacteria have been found that are so far out that they may shed light on extraterrestrial organisms. The science media loved the story; another step to proving the naturalistic origin of life in outer space:

the paper had reported “arsenic-based life” which is “very alien in terms of how it’s put together” and “NASA has, in a very real sense, discovered a form of alien life” (io9)

“you can potentially cross phosphorus off the list of elements required for life” (Nature)

But

soon after the original Science paper was published, credible scientists began critiquing the paper’s claims. In the June 3, 2011 issue of Science, several of those scientists have published comments critiquing the original paper. Many of their criticisms focus on the claim that the original paper did not establish or rule out the possibility that the bacteria are not still living off of phosphorous.

He offers a review of the criticisms, observing that no other lab has offered to try to replicate the findings. Read More ›