What Is the Origin of Life? - Moods Change-Riddles Remain

In the years since, however, that optimism has evaporated.  Decades have passed, and life's secrets remain elusive. Some 40 years after his experiment Professor Miller told Scientific American "The problem of the origin of life has turned out to be much more difficult than I, and most other people, envisioned."  Other scientists share this change of mood.  For example, back in 1969, Professor of Biology Dean H.Kenyon coauthored Biochemical Predestination.  But more recently he concluded that it is "fundamentally implausible that unassisted matter and energy organized themselves into living systems."

Indeed, laboratory work bears out Kenyon's assessment that there is "a fundamental flaw in all current theories of the chemical origins of life." After Miller and others later synthesized amino acids, scientists  set out to make proteins and DNA, both of which are necessary for life on earth. After thousands of experiments with so-called prebiotic  conditions, what was the outcome?  The Mystery of Life's Origin; Reassessing Current Theories notes:  "There is an impressive contrast between the considerable success in synthesizing amino acids and the constant failure to synthesize protein and DNA."  The latter efforts are characterized by "uniform failure."

Realistically, the mystery encompasses more than how the first protein and nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) molecules came into existence.  It includes how they work together.  "It is only the partnership of the two molecules that makes contemporary life on Earth possible," says the Encyclopedia Britannica.  Yet the encyclopedia notes that how that partnership could come about remains "a critical and unsolved problem in the origin of life."  True, indeed. 

Appendix A, "Teamwork for Life" (pages 45-47), reviews some basic details of the intriguing teamwork between protein and nucleic acids in our cells. Even such a glimpse into the realm of our body cells elicits admiration for the work of scientists in this field.  They have shed light on extraordinary complex processes that few of of even think about but that operate every moment of our lives.  From another standpoint, however,the staggering complexity and precision required returns us to the question, How did all of this come about?

Next time: What Is the Origin of Life? - Conclusion of Moods Change-Riddles Remain

From the book Is There a Creator That Cares About You?