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Origin Of Life

Rob Sheldon on the problems with the peptide origin of life hypothesis

Sheldon: It is unlikely life can start with one or a few amino acids, because the full suite is needed to build nano-machines. Although your car has lots of bolts, one cannot build a car out of nothing but bolts. Read More ›

At Mind Matters News: Will AI chemistry robots finally discover the origin of life?

One problem: Before life exists, there is nothing for purely natural selection to select. How the robots, themselves a product of design, can help is unclear. Read More ›

Paradox: Why wasn’t our planet frozen solid in the early solar system?

The only thing current researchers are sure of is that they do NOT like the term “paradox.” That said, they do not have a clear answer, just a number of evidence-based speculations. So it’s still a paradox until the word itself gets Cancelled. And it will still be what it is anyway. Read More ›

Why the origin of life is not reducible to physics

Just look what the hopeful researchers have to say in order to claim that. They are not able to get away from the need for design. Their actual claims sound panpsychist, which would be fine if it were admitted. Then we could at least discuss things honestly. Read More ›

Getting away from the AHA! Moment re the origin of life

The good news with the interdisciplinary approach is that a greater awareness of the sheer complexity of the situation will be forced on the researchers so perhaps we will be hearing fewer “lucky strike” origin of life theories. The bad news… well, they might want to talk to chemist James Tour about that. Read More ›

Researchers: Poisonous cyanide may have been a “harbinger of life” 4 billion years ago

Note the “may have” and “could have been.” That’s where a lot of origin of life studies are, really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it is not mistaken for “the findings of science.” It's speculation, pure and simple. It would be a great hard sci-fi novel, maybe a flick. And fun for chemistry students! Read More ›

James Tour on what is wrong with origin of life research – at Inference Review

It’s an impossible exercise if you leave out design: The same shortcomings and omissions that plague current OOL research can also be found in the paper under review. Indeed, these issues are so routinely ignored by researchers that the field appears to have become numbed to their absence from the literature. OOL researchers are prepared to assume that an ever-increasing list of obstacles were overcome on the prebiotic earth, but do not consider these hurdles as problems to be solved in their own work. The following five shortcomings in the research presented by Krishnamurthy et al., are emblematic of broader issues that need to be addressed. James Tour, “Much Ado About Nothing” at Inference Review (January 2022)

Does the American Scientific Affiliation still matter?

Re Isaac's review of an OOL book "His review is noteworthy in that nearly every argument he offers demonstrates that he failed to honestly engage with the book’s contents. His failings are not entirely his fault. Instead, they reflect the philosophical filter that distorted his comprehension of the evidence." Read More ›