At Phys.Org today, a press release indicates that scientists have fashioned a type of stand-in for natural cells which can ‘mimic’ some of their functions/properties.
The title of the PR is:
“Scientists create artificial cells that mimic living cells’ ability to capture, process, and expel material.”
Should we add this to the Miller-Urey experiment as a new piece of the puzzle as to how life started?
Well, first of all, the limitations of the Miller-Urey experiment have been spelled out elsewhere, but should be well-known by now. Second, here’s what we read at Phys.Org:
To design the cell mimics, the researchers created a spherical membrane the size of a red blood cell using a polymer, a stand-in for the cellular membrane that controls what goes in and out of a cell. They pierced a microscopic hole into the spherical membrane creating a nano-channel through which matter can be exchanged, imitating a cell’s protein channel.
But in order to perform the tasks required for active transport, the cell mimics needed a mechanism to power the cell-like structure to pull in and expel material. In a living cell, mitochondria and ATP provide the necessary energy for active transport. In the cell mimic, the researchers added a chemically reactive component inside the nano-channel that, when activated by light, acts as a pump. When light hits the pump, it triggers a chemical reaction, turning the pump into a tiny vacuum and pulling cargo into the membrane. When the pump is switched off, the cargo is trapped and processed inside the cell mimic. And when the chemical reaction is reversed, the cargo is pushed out on demand.
“Our design concept enables these artificial cell mimics to operate autonomously and perform active transport tasks that have so far been confined to the realm of living cells,” said Stefano Sacanna, associate professor of chemistry at NYU and the study’s lead author.
Well, what about all this ‘designing’? Can we adduce that these ‘cell mimics’ were designed by considering the materials they’re made out of and how it’s assembled? If so, then, based on living cells, ‘design’ can also be adduced.
So, no, even if this experiment is tauted as the next “Miller-Urey” experiment, we see that in both instances it is the presence of the ‘intelligent’ agents that brought about their published results.