The Origin of Life
Paul Davies is an internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. In New Scientist, Vol. 179 (2403):32, July 12, 2003 stated: "It's a shame that there are precious few hard facts when it comes to the origin of life... the how part has everybody stumped. Nobody knows how a mixture of lifeless chemicals spontaneously organized themselves into the first living cell."
Dr. George Wald, Harvard University biochemist and Nobel Laureate, once stated in Scientific American Vol. 190, August 1954, p. 48: "Time is in fact the hero of the plot. ... Given so much time, the 'impossible' becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs the miracles."
Franklin M. Harold, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Colo State U., The Way of the Cell, 2001, p. 236. Stated: "Life arose here on earth from inanimate matter, by some kind of evolutionary process, about four billion years ago. This is not a statement of demonstrable fact, but an assumption almost universally shared by specialists as well as scientists in general. It is not supported by any direct evidence, nor is it likely to be, but it is consistent with what evidence we do have."
The Miller-Urey Experiment
Stanley Miller and Harold Urey devised an experiment that was designed to prove the possibility of life coming into existence by the right mixture of chemicals. The success or failure of that experiment has been debated.
In Holt Biology 2006, on page 254 it states: "We now know that the reductant molecules used in Miller's experiment could not have existed in abundance on the early Earth. Four billion years ago, Earth did not have a protective layer of ozone gas, - Today ozone protects Earth's surface from most of the sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. Without ozone, ultraviolet radiation would have destroyed any ammonia and methane present in the atmosphere." This raises a very important question: If the chemicals needed to form life were not in the atmosphere, where did they come from?
When these gases are absent from the Miller-Urey experiment, key biological molecules are not made. They also did not include oxygen, even though it is believed oxygen did exist in abundance in earth's early atmosphere. The existence of oxygen however would have ruined the experiment.
Holt Biology goes on to say: "Some scientists argue that the chemicals were produced within ocean bubbles. Others say that the chemicals arose in deep sea vents. The correct answer has not been determined yet."
The Law of Biogenesis
In Glencoe Biology, 2006, p. 381 it stated: "Finally, in the mid-1800s, Louis Pasteur designed an experiment that disproved the spontaneous generation of microorganisms. From that time on, biogenesis, the idea that living organisms come only from other living organisms, became a cornerstone of biology." On page 382 it stated: "Biologists have accepted the concept of biogenesis for more than 100 years."
A known law of science states that life comes only from other life. Abiogenesis states that life came from non-life, but it has never been observed, nor produced in a laboratory experiment.
Robert Gange, Ph.D. (research scientist with extensive research in the field of cryophysics and information systems.), Origins and Destiny, 1986, p. 77 stated: "The likelihood of life having occurred through a chemical accident is, for all intents and purposes, zero."
Left-handed Amino Acids
Points to consider:
1. A mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids is a poison to life.
2. All biological proteins (all life) contain 100% left-handed amino acids.
3. When a living organism dies, the natural property of amino acids is to revert to a mixture (left-handed and right-handed).
4. When a solution of left-handed amino acids is left alone, the amino acids slowly alter until the solution becomes approximately a mixture of 50/50 right-handed and left-handed amino acids.
In "life" or "death," the natural tendency is half left-handed amino acids, and half right-handed. All life forms are made up of 100% left-handed amino acids.
Life is a miracle of design and purpose!