Protocell Research: on the Verge of. . . a Dead End

Harvard Medical School scientists believe they are closer to creating life out of non-living matter—but there are good reasons to doubt it.

Molecular biologist Jack Szostak and his team are building simple cell models that can almost be called life,1 according to an online report. They hope these protocells made from fatty molecules will trap precursors to nucleic acids and hold them long enough for these chemical precursors to begin to copy themselves. Such replication is thought to have jump-started the evolution of life. In a recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Szostak published his work on the special membranes he believes could have been involved in this process.2

Though considered as close as anyone has ever come to turning chemicals into biological organisms,1 this whole endeavor has immense hurdles to clear before it can demonstrate the possibility that life spontaneously generated from non-life. Here are just a few of the obstacles that, presuming the absence of God, natural processes must have overcome to create Szostaks protocell: IF neo-Darwinian evolution, which is supposed to involve nature selecting whole organisms from within a population, applies to raw chemicals, and IF the first cell membrane was not made with phospholipids like all modern living cells, but instead with fatty acids, and IF there was a nutrient-filled ocean on an early earth, and IF those nutrients contained just the right precursor chemicals,3 and IF those nutrients were optically purified (which science shows cannot happen without machines),4 and IF those precursors could eventually morph into the chemicals of real life: DNA, RNA, proteins, vitamins, cholesterols, and certain carbohydrates (although chemistry has shown this is not possible without machines),5 and IF those nutrients were highly concentrated in a small area, despite forces that would lead to their diffusion, and IF fatty acids could spontaneously generate in a watery soup, and IF the nutrient concentration coincided with a floating fatty acid bubble, and IF the ocean had the proper pH required to form vesicles (bubbles assembled from the fatty acids to serve as containers for the new cells), and IF the temperature in that ocean fluctuated precisely to disrupt the bubbles integrity, permitting nutrients into (but not out of!) itself, and IF oxygen, free radicals, other harmful chemicals, ultraviolet light, electricity, or any physical motions were not there to disrupt the delicate concoction, and IF the high temperatures required to induce the bubble to assimilate small RNA-like bits, did not also break the precursors down before they figured out how to replicate or at least maintain themselves,6 and IF the small-sized oily vesicles that formed spontaneously were to somehow expand, providing adequate internal space to house biochemical precursors, yet without losing structural integrity, THEN we would have a chemical-containing bubble that is as close to a living cell as a desktop globe is to planet earth.

In short, the latest science has given us no reason to doubt a 48-year-old statement given by an honest scientist: The physical chemist, guided by the proved principles of chemical thermodynamics and kinetics, cannot offer any encouragement to the biochemist, who needs an ocean full of organic compounds to form even lifeless coacervates.6

Despite naturalistic claims, life is not simply the product of randomly accumulated chemical debris. A living body and a non-living body may share the same chemical make-up, but only one is alive. Life contains specific structures, as well as an encyclopedias worth of non-repeating information that provides the genetic instructions needed to sustain that life. Moreover, we consistently observe that these attributes simply do not arise naturally. Chemicals cannot create life—they can only maintain the life that is already present. Life is ultimately a gift of God.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Cell
• life
• evolutio
• creation

[markburnash271]

The staggering amount of time involved with ambiogenesis and evolution presents many opportunites for a great many IFS to come together.

[1PintLasher]

IF IF IF IF IF IF IF. Life had 3 billion years of ifs before it finally landed on a cell design that worked and today the cells design is even better. Deal with it you bible thumping, bullshit believing fuck up.

[bioman123]

What has given us more information on life... science or the bible? I will stick with what works. That is science.

[dkt80]

Is this video 33 seconds long, or is my Youtube just broken? At any rate, nothing interesting or new is said in those 33 seconds.

[ScientiaVeritasEtLux]

you're right, the human population was fairly stable; in a sort of equilibrium, before the industrial/medical revolution where it increased explosively. Creationists tend to conveniently take the gross pop. increase % of today rather than considering that the rate of increase varied drastically throughout history.

[WeedGreenPowerRanger]

"Yes they do and after the flood people lived longer then they do right know "

1) Thats a wild ass idea with no support.

2) The longer someone lives, the less functional their genitals become. If you want to argue that Adam could still get it up at age 600, then you're going to have to show evidence of Pre-Flood viagra.

3) No, they do not. The assume a constant rate of growth while ignoring things like environmental attrition, and the simple fact that people Die. Show me a study that Doesn't.

[V4Andy]

Do you know anyone who has observed this or created a lab experiment that produces this result? I'm sure there are hundreds of geologists and paleontologists who would be interested to know that a central tool to their study has been discredited which would be something they can't ignore.

It can't be hard either (at least for a trained scientist), just observe radioactive decay underwater

[EmeraldView]

Poor kut77less, is your precious "god" dying??

Yes, I think he is. So sad. If you're lucky though you will croak before having to witness his complete demise.

[sum1unxpected]

how many kids did Cain and Able have with their mother?

[0000Austin]

thats if those people had technology. before the industial revolution population growth was much slower.