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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... Read More ›

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. Read More ›

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 to those connected with the logic of cause and so too inductive reasoning — which includes inference to the best explanation (i.e. abduction). I trust, this will be useful. END PS, as the critic attacked Dr Tour personally as allegedly lying for Jesus (which does not seem to be warranted on the circumstances), it is relevant to add this on Dr Tour’s response to anti-Christian 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. Read More ›

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 grew an organism called Lokiarchaeum ossiferum, which belongs to a group of microbes known as Asgard archaea, according to a new report, published Wednesday (Dec. 21) in the journal Nature. Named after the abode of the gods in Norse mythology, Asgard archaea are thought by some scientists to be the closest evolutionary relatives of eukaryotes, cells that package their DNA in a protective bubble called a nucleus.  On the evolutionary Read More ›

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 scientists agree were made by living organisms date back 3.43 billion years, but there are older specimens, too. In the Dresser Formation of Western Australia, stromatolites dating back 3.48 billion years have been found.  However, billions of years have wiped away traces of organic matter in these older stromatolites, raising questions about whether they were really formed by microbes or whether they might have been 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. Read More ›

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." Read More ›