Basic
Worldview:
103
Science, the Bible,
and Creation
Origins
- Section Three:
Evolution, Environment for Life 2
Origins - Section One: Introduction
and the Basics
Origins - Section Two: Premature
Dismissals
Origins - Section Two: Application
of the Basics
Origins - Section Three: Creation
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Origin of Life
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Environment for Life 1
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Environment for Life 2
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Another Planet
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Origin of Species
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Speciation Factors
Origins - Section Three: Evolution,
Speciation Rates
Origins - Section Four: Time and
Age, Redshift
Origins - Section Four: Philosophical
Preference
Origins - Section Four: Cosmological
Model 1
Origins - Section Four: Cosmological
Model 2
Origins - Section Four: Dating Methods,
Perceptions, Basics
Origins - Section Four: Global Flood
Evidence
Origins - Section Four: Relative
Dating
Origins - Section Four: Dating and
Circular Reasoning
Origins - Section Four: The Geologic
Column
Origins - Section Four: Radiometric
Dating Basics
Origins - Section Four: General
Radiometric Problems
Origins - Section Four: Carbon-14
Problems
Origins - Section Four: Remaining
Methods and Decay Rates
Origins - Section Four: Radiometric
Conclusions, Other Methods
Origins - Section Five: Overall
Conclusions, Closing Editorial
Origins - Section Five: List
of Evidences Table
Origins Debate Figures and
Illustrations
Evolution
on the Origin of Life: Energy and Safety, a Suitable Environment
(Cont'd.)
In
addition to the tide pools suggestion there is also another
alternative that has been put forward by evolutionary scientists
trying to solve this dilemma. Instead of fueling the origin
of life by photosynthesis, chemosynthesis has been suggested.
Chemoautotroph is the term used to designated organisms that
utilize organic or inorganic compounds rather than photoautotrophs,
which use sunlight, or heterotrophs, which use organic compounds
from other living organisms for energy.
“Community
Ecology, Biotic elements of communities, Trophic pyramids
and the flow of energy, Autotrophs and heterotrophs –
The base of the pyramid is composed of species called autotrophs,
the primary producers of the ecosystem. They do not obtain
energy and nutrients by eating other organisms. Instead,
they harness solar energy by photosynthesis (photoautotrophs)
or, more rarely, chemical energy by oxidation (chemoautotrophs)
to make organic substances from inorganic ones. All other
organisms in the ecosystem are consumers called heterotrophs,
which either directly or indirectly depend on the producers
for food energy.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica
2004 Deluxe Edition
This
process of using organic or inorganic compounds instead of
sunlight for energy is called chemosynthesis. Notice that
the location for these early life forms are “deep-sea
hydrothermal vents.”
"Archaebacteria
– Archaebacteria often live in extreme conditions that
were once considered inhospitable to life. Some
archaebacteria live in deep-sea hydrothermal vents in
the Pacific Ocean. Located at depths of 3 km (2 mi), the hot
vents provide a dark environment with extremely high temperature
and pressure where few creatures can survive. Instead
of deriving energy from the sun, these microorganisms obtain
energy by oxidizing inorganic chemicals that spew from the
hot vents. In a process known as chemosynthesis, archaebacteria
harvest energy from chemical reactions involving hydrogen
sulfide and other inorganic compounds." – "Archaebacteria,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
"Ocean,
Life in the Ocean, The Food Cycle – Hot vents support
thriving communities of marine life. However, the food cycle
at hot vents is not based on phytoplankton. Instead, such
microscopic organisms as bacteria and archaea serve as the
food base. Archaea are single-celled organisms that rank among
the oldest forms of life on Earth. In
a process called chemosynthesis, these microorganisms use
energy from chemicals in the water instead of sunlight to
produce food and grow." - Worldbook, Contributor:
Dana R. Kester, Ph.D., Professor of Oceanography, University
of Rhode Island.
The
following quotes further describe the chemosynthesis energy
source suggestion. It is important to note that this scenario
hypothetically locates the origin of life to the deep floor
of the ocean where hydrothermal vents of water are heated
by cracks in the floor’s surface.
“And
that, says Jack Corliss, is where hydrothermal vents come into the picture.
Since his discovery of the Galápagos hot springs, Corliss,
who now works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center,
in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a growing number of his colleagues
have been promoting the notion that hydrothermal vents were the birthplace of
life. The thing about the hot
springs, Corliss says, is that they provide a nice, safe,
continuous process by which you can go from very simple molecules
all the way to living cells and primitive bacteria. The crux
is the word continuous. For besides providing safe harbor
for the development of life, vents offer a natural temperature gradient. The vents have it all, from the cracking front in the interior,
where temperatures reach 1300 degrees and
cool water filtering down from above cracks the superheated
rock, to the 40-degree seafloor. Whatever temperature
you want, says Corliss, you have your choice. And any chemist
will tell you that where you find a temperature gradient is where you’ll find chemical
reactions--maybe even the ones that began life.”
– How Did Life Start?, by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER,
Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine
“Evolution,
IX STEPS IN EVOLUTION – Widely accepted evidence
suggests that the first organisms were archaebacteria, primitive
cells without nuclei. These cells may have evolved in waters with
extremely high temperatures and no
oxygen.” – "Evolution," Microsoft®
Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Notice
that the quote above insists that there was “no oxygen”
in these deep ocean, high temperature vents. As mentioned
previously, later on we will see quotes later attesting to
the fact that oxygen is a significant obstacle to the formation
of pre-biotic compounds, because it also causes the breakdown
of any existing compounds. This is why, of all the possible
factors and characteristics of the deep ocean environment,
the quote above takes the time to specifically mention “no
oxygen.” However, even though the quote above specifically
denies the presence of oxygen, the evolutionary biologist
in the quote below from Discover magazine directly asserts the
presence of oxygen is not only a byproduct of these vents
but one that is essential to the formation of organic compounds.
“The
vents have it all, from the cracking front in the interior,
where temperatures reach 1300 degrees and
cool water filtering down from above cracks the superheated
rock, to the 40-degree seafloor. Whatever temperature you
want, says Corliss, you have your choice. And
any chemist will tell you that where you find a temperature
gradient is where you’ll find chemical reactions--maybe
even the ones that began life. The reactions Corliss envisions
began at the cracking front, half a mile deep in the planet’s
crust, where seawater encountered hot magma. There,
in this seething caldron, elements
like carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur interacted
to form new, organic compounds. Just as in the Miller-Urey
experiments, says Corliss, if
you heat simple molecules to high temperature, you can make
organic compounds.” – “How Did Life
Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11,
November 1992, Biology & Medicine
Moreover,
there is also a sufficiency of quantity issue with this suggested
energy source. Ultimately, strictly chemical reactions (chemosynthesis
as opposed for photosynthesis), such as those deep enough
in the ocean where sunlight does not penetrate, are not likely
to produce enough energy to fuel inorganic reactions.
“Extraterrestrial
life, The chemistry of extraterrestrial life – Since
after a certain period of evolution, lives of unabashed heterotrophy
lead to malnutrition and death, autotrophs must exist. Chemoautotrophs are, of course, a possibility but the inorganic reactions
that they drive usually require a great deal of energy; at
some stage in the cycle, this energy must probably be provided
by sunlight. Photoautotrophs, therefore, seem required.
Organisms that live
very far subsurface will be in the dark, making photoautotrophy
impossible. Organisms that live slightly subsurface, however,
may avoid ultraviolet and charged particle radiation and at
the same time acquire sufficient amounts of visible light
for photosynthesis.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica
2004 Deluxe Edition
Furthermore,
as the quotes above and the quotes below attest, these deep
sea vents might provide the necessary energy for the formation
of pre-biotic compounds by means of their great heat. However,
the maximum temperature in which life is possible appears
to be 230 degrees.
“Meanwhile
deep-sea thermophiles
have been found near vents
at temperatures as high as 230 degrees.” –
“Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places,” by
Will Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy
& Physics
Here
the chemosynthesis suggestion faces safety and improbability
issues. First, chemosynthesis would have to take place within
a very narrow range of temperatures, hot enough for reactions
to occur but not too hot or the same compounds would be ruined.
The quotes below state that while heat could provide a potential
source of energy, heat also poses a problem because it has
the tendency to break down important pre-biotic chemical compounds.
“Extraterrestrial
life, The chemistry of extraterrestrial life – Life on Earth lies within a rather narrow range of temperature.
Above the normal boiling point of water,
much loss of configurational structure or three-dimensional
geometry occurs. At these temperatures proteins become denatured,
in part because above the boiling point of water the hydrogen
bonding and van der Waals forces between water and the protein
disappear. Also, similar
bonds within the protein molecule tend to break down. Proteins
then change their shapes, their ability to participate in
lock-and-key enzymatic reactions is gravely compromised, and
the organism dies…Molecular factors – While
the bonds that characterize life on Earth are too weak at
high temperatures, they are too strong at low temperatures,
tending to slow down the rates of chemical reactions generally.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Enzyme,
Chemical nature. – A large protein enzyme molecule
is composed of one or more amino acid chains called polypeptide
chains. The amino acid sequence determines the characteristic
folding patterns of the protein's structure, which is essential
to enzyme specificity. If the enzyme is subjected to changes, such as fluctuations in temperature
or pH, the protein structure may lose its integrity (denature)
and its enzymatic ability. Denaturation is sometimes,
but not always, reversible.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica
2004 Deluxe Edition
“Yet
there are absolutes: life has its limits. There is just so
hot that chemistry can go, just so cold that processes
like photosynthesis can occur; they become too slow.”
– Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places, by Will
Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy &
Physics
“Enzyme,
Mechanism of enzyme action – In
most chemical reactions, an energy barrier exists that must
be overcome for the reaction to occur. This
barrier prevents complex molecules such as proteins and nucleic
acids from spontaneously degrading, and
so is necessary for the preservation of life. When metabolic
changes are required in a cell, however, certain of these
complex molecules must be broken down, and this energy barrier
must be surmounted. Heat could provide the additional needed energy (called activation energy),
but the rise in temperature would kill the cell. The alternative
is to lower the activation energy level through the use of
a catalyst. This is the role that enzymes play.” –
Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“But
heat is a double-edged
sword. It facilitates chemical reactions, but it can also
destroy the products of those reactions. If exposed to high
heat for too long, organic compounds decompose. It’s
a very simple argument: if you keep a roast too long in an
oven that’s too hot, it’s going to get charred,
says Miller, who has
little use for this scenario either. The vent hypothesis is
a real loser. I
don’t understand why we even have to discuss it, he
says, his voice rising
to an exasperated falsetto.” – “How
Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol.
13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine
As
the quote above states, the over-heating problem is so significant
that Stanley Miller rejects the “vent hypothesis”
as a “real loser” that is not even worthy of discussion.
Even supporters of the deep ocean vent theory admit that in
order for it to work, you’d have to get the compounds
so hot to interact properly that they’d need to cool
“very rapidly.” And only if they cooled very rapidly
would they be “preserved” rather than destroyed.
This creates an improbability obstacle for the deep-sea thermal
vent suggestion.
“Corliss,
however, thinks he has an ace in the hole: a
vent’s temperature gradient. He thinks it likely
that the circulating seawater cooled the newly formed compounds
almost immediately. If
you quenched them very rapidly, you could preserve them,
he says. Then they rose and mixed and worked their way up
in the hot springs, through this huge complex of fractures,
cooling as they went.” – “How Did Life Start?,”
by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992,
Biology & Medicine
In
addition to the “safety” issue surrounding the
problems posed by heat, there is also another danger posed
by the watery setting. Not only would the water itself breakdown
any potential formations of important pre-biotic chemicals,
but at these depths there is also the extreme likelihood that
any pre-biotic compounds that did manage to form would dissipate
into the ocean without every encountering another organic
molecule to interact with and eventually form life.
“Life,
The origin of life, Production of simple organic molecules
– Despite the breakdown by water of molecular
intermediates, condensing agents are often quite effective
in inducing polymerization, and polymers of amino acids, sugars,
and nucleotides have all been made this way. A famous British
scientist, J.D. Bernal, suggested that adsorption of molecular
intermediates on clays or other minerals may have concentrated
these intermediates. Such concentration could offset the tendency for water to break down
polymers of biological significance.”– Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Finally
the organic compounds were deposited onto the clay minerals
lining the mouth of a vent. And there they stayed. Rather than simply emerging and dissipating
into the vast ocean where they might never encounter another
organic molecule, the compounds accumulated on the clay surface. There, in a concentrated colony, they were able
to interact with one another and with the endless supply of
new compounds rising in the hot springs, until over time the
first stirrings of primitive life emerged.” –
How Did Life Start?, by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13
No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine
Here
again, the suggested solution is that these very real obstacles
could be avoided if the pre-biotic compounds adhered to the
presence of clay surfaces. This additional requirement adds
yet another factor to the improbability to the scenario. And
while the clays lining the vents seem to fit theoretically,
as demonstrated by the quote below, this suggested solution
is questioned by other evolutionary scientists. In the Discover article below, evolutionary
scientist David Deamer indicates that he prefers to “tide
pools” over the hydrothermal vent theory.
“There
are many exotic new ideas these days about where life originated.
Some researchers say the grand event took place around the
furnaces of underwater hydrothermal vents; others look
in the spray of ocean bubbles; and still others prefer clay. But Deamer’s choice is tide pools,
an idea that harks back at least as far as Darwin’s
warm, still ponds.” – “First Cell,”
By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology
& Medicine
Moreover,
as we can see from the quote above, Stanley Miller even considers
this scenario, including the added role of the clays, as “too
far-fetched.”
“This
scenario, attractive as it may seem, is--like so many others--too
farfetched for Miller. It’s not that I don’t
want to entertain new ideas--that’s fine, he says. The
question is, does this chemistry work? Actually work in the
lab? Either it does or it doesn’t. His point is
well taken. Whatever else may be said about Miller’s ideas, his experiments
worked. Talk, even informed talk, is cheap. If they’re to have an impact comparable to Miller’s, these
champions of crystals and vents and interstellar particles
must demonstrate their scenarios. But how? You can’t try to make early life at existing hot springs--they’re
already replete with bacteria and other life-forms, so the
environment just can’t be the same as it was on the
primordial planet. And re-creating
an ancient hydrothermal vent in the lab is a mind-boggling
prospect. Still, vent researchers are busily conducting
experiments designed to do just that…And Cairns-Smith
is investigating the chemical relationships between minerals
and organic compounds. But
while he recognizes the importance of experimental proof,
Cairns-Smith cheerfully acknowledges that he may never come
up with any.” – How Did Life Start?, by Peter
Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology
& Medicine
As
we can see from the quote above, the main problem that other
evolutionary scientists, such as Stanley Miller, have with
the chemosynthesis, hydrothermal vent hypothesis is that there
is no experimental data at all to support or demonstrate this
chemosynthesis, hydrothermal vent scenario. In fact, as the
end of the quote states, even proponents of the hydrothermal
vent scenario admit not only that there is no experimental
support for it but also that they may never be able to generate
any experiment or experimental data even capable of supporting
it.
Here
the chemosynthesis suggestion attains the status of being
un-testable, therefore un-falsifiable, and consequently unscientific.
In an earlier section of this series, we discussed the scientific
method and specifically the requirement that in order to be
considered “truly scientific” and within the realm
of science rather than mere “pseudoscience,” a
theory has to be “confirmed by actual experience,”
able to be “checked,” and “repeatedly tested
experimentally.”
“Empiricism
– a philosophical
approach that views experience as the most important source
of knowledge. It is the philosophical outlook of most scientists.”
– Worldbook Encyclopedia, Contributor: W. W. Bartley,
III, Ph.D., Former Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University.
“Empiricism
– in philosophy, the
attitude that beliefs are to be accepted and acted upon only
if they first have been confirmed by actual experience.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Popper,
Karl Raimund – Popper
wanted to mark the boundary between scientific and nonscientific
accounts of the physical, psychological, and social world.
Nonscientific accounts include those offered by astrology, mythology,
and some forms of traditional philosophy and religion.
This approach connects Popper with two
overlapping philosophical movements, Logical Positivism and
Empiricism. Philosophers representing
these movements argue that meaningful scientific
accounts differ from nonscientific ones in that only the scientific
can be tested by experience.” – Worldbook,
Contributor: Ivan Soll, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, University
of Wisconsin, Madison.
“Empiricism,
Criticism and evaluation, Criticism and evaluation –
One important philosopher of science, Karl
Popper, has rejected the inductivism that views the growth
of empirical knowledge as the result of a mechanical routine
of generalization. To him it is falsifiability by experience
that makes a statement empirical.” – Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Science,
philosophy of, Historical development, The 20th-century debate:
Positivists versus historians – Meanwhile, the qualified
Realism of Planck and Hertz was carried further by such men
as Norman Campbell, an English physicist known for his sharpening
of the distinction between laws and theories, and Karl
Popper, an Austro-English philosopher recognized for his theory
of falsifiability, both of whose views reflect the explicit
methodology of many working scientists today.” –
Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Science
– A theory
developed by a scientist cannot
be accepted as part of scientific knowledge until it has been
verified by the studies of other researchers. In fact,
for any knowledge to
be truly scientific, it must be repeatedly tested experimentally
and found to be true. This
characteristic of science sets it apart from other branches
of knowledge. For example, the humanities, which include
religion, philosophy, and the arts, deal with ideas about
human nature and the meaning of life. Such ideas cannot be scientifically proved.
There is no test that tells whether a philosophical system
is "right." No one can determine scientifically
what feeling an artist tried to express in a painting. Nor
can anyone perform an experiment to check for an error
in a poem or a symphony.” – Worldbook, Contributor:
Joseph W. Dauben, Ph.D., Professor of History and the History
of Science, City University of New York.
As
we have seen from the quotes above, the chemosynthesis hydrothermal
vent hypothesis is simply un-falsifiable. Thus, concerning
the requirement that a theory must be falsifiable, the chemosynthesis
hydrothermal vent hypothesis fails to meet the basic criteria
of the scientific method. And, as we have also seen, this
is exactly why evolutionary scientists like Stanley Miller
reject this suggestion as “too far fetched.” This
barrier stands in addition to the sufficient quantity and
multiple “safety” obstacles also inherent to this
theory.
With
the failure of the deep-sea floor chemosynthesis scenario,
we return once again to the ultraviolet light suggestion,
which employs a location at least a few tens of meters deep
but not too deep under water. Our present return to this theory
does not overturn the obstacles inherent to this scenario
as described earlier. It should be stated for review that
numerous quotes already established the inadequacy of this
model including the depth and unavailability dilemma, the
numerous prohibitive “safety” issues involving
both the ultraviolet light and the water itself as well as
the fact that only the most basic chemical compounds have
been produced experimentally under this scenario, leaving
it nowhere near the complex molecules necessary for the origin
of life. In particular, we noted that without the presence
of clays or other minerals in the water, water will breakdown
pre-biotic molecules.
“Life,
The origin of life, Production of simple organic molecules
– Despite the breakdown by water of molecular
intermediates, condensing agents are often quite effective
in inducing polymerization, and polymers of amino acids, sugars,
and nucleotides have all been made this way. A famous
British scientist, J.D. Bernal, suggested that adsorption
of molecular intermediates on clays or other minerals
may have concentrated these intermediates. Such
concentration could offset the tendency for water to break
down polymers of biological significance. Of special interest
is the possibility that such concentration matrices included
phosphates, for this would help explain how phosphorus could
have been incorporated preferentially into prebiological organic
molecules at a time when biological concentration mechanisms
did not yet exist. Mineral catalysis implies that organic synthesis
could also occur in deep water where ultraviolet light had
been filtered out.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica
2004 Deluxe Edition
We
went on to note that the adherence of pre-biotic compounds
to submarine clay surfaces has been suggested as a solution
to this prohibitive tendency of water. However, as stated
earlier, even if this suggested solution were adequate to
prevent water from breaking down the important pre-biotic
molecules, the ultraviolet scenario would still face another
insurmountable difficulty.
Like
water, oxygen prevents the formation of pre-biotic compounds.
The requirement that there must be “no oxygen”
present is stipulated when describing the possibility of pre-biotic
compounds assembling on the early earth.
“Evolution,
IX STEPS IN EVOLUTION – Life
originated about 3.5 billion years ago, when the earth's
environment was very different than it is today. Especially
important was the lack of significant amounts of free oxygen
in the atmosphere. Experiments have shown that rather
complicated organic molecules, including amino acids, can arise spontaneously under conditions
that are believed to simulate the earth's primitive environment.”
– "Evolution," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia
99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
“Evolution,
IX STEPS IN EVOLUTION – Widely accepted evidence
suggests that the first organisms were archaebacteria, primitive
cells without nuclei. These cells may have evolved in waters with
extremely high temperatures and no
oxygen.” – "Evolution," Microsoft®
Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
But
even though the presence of oxygen is prohibitive to evolutionary
origin of life scenarios, modern evolutionists now believe
oxygen was more present in the early earth than before and
in enough quantity that it would inhibit any form of energy
from bringing about the assembly of pre-biotics in the first
place. In fact, the presence of oxygen would cause other compounds
to form instead.
“For
example, what if the
primordial atmosphere wasn’t anything like the one Miller
and Urey imagined? Would it be so easy to produce organics
then? The Miller-Urey experiment was a strong foundation
because it was consistent with theories at the time, says geochemist Everett
Shock of Washington University in St. Louis. The problem is that subsequent research has swept away a lot of those
ideas. The Miller-Urey atmosphere contained a lot of hydrogen.
But now the atmosphere of the early Earth
is thought to have been more oxidized. That makes Miller’s scenario less probable, because it’s a lot harder to make organic
molecules in the presence of oxygen. A hydrogen-rich atmosphere
is relatively unstable. When
zapped by lightning or other sources of energy, molecules
in that environment readily tumble together into organic compounds.
Not so in a heavily oxidized atmosphere. While
an infusion of energy may cause a few simple organics to form,
for the most part the results are inorganic gases like carbon
monoxide and nitrogen oxide. These are the constituents
of smog, says Shock. So basically
what you’re getting is a lot of air pollution.”
– “How Did Life Start?,” by Peter Radetsky,
DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine
As
indicated by the quote immediately above, oxygen is more stable
than other suggested components to the primitive earth environment.
Consequently, oxygen would tend to inhibit lightning or other
sources of energy from assembling pre-biotic compounds, causing
other compounds, such as “smog,” to form instead.
Second,
not only would oxygen prohibit the formation of any pre-biotic
compounds, but it would also breakdown any pre-biotic compounds
that did manage to form.
“Life,
The origin of life, The earliest living systems –
The cell may have arisen in response to the need for maintaining
a high concentration of scarce building blocks or enzymes,
or as protection against the gradually increasing abundance
of oxygen on the primitive Earth. Oxygen is a well-known poison to many biological processes, and in contemporary
higher organisms the mitochondria that handle molecular oxygen
are kept in the cytoplasm, far from contact with the nuclear
material...As the competition for building blocks increased
among early life forms, and also perhaps as
the abiological production of organic molecules dwindled because
of the increasing oxygen abundance, the strictly heterotrophic
way of life became more and more costly.” – Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Earth,
geologic history of, Development of the atmosphere and oceans,
Formation of the secondary atmosphere – Primitive
organisms, such as blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria), cause
carbon dioxide and water to react by photosynthesis to
produce carbohydrates, which they need for growth, repair,
and other vital functions, and this reaction releases free oxygen...The earliest primitive organisms produced free oxygen as a by-product,
and in the absence of oxygen-mediating enzymes it was harmful
to their living cells and had to be removed.” –
Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
The
insurmountable problem with the ultraviolet scenario is that
utilizing ultraviolet light as an energy source for the origin
of life inherently involves photosynthetic processes. And
photosynthesis (or photoautotrophy) inherently produces free
oxygen as a byproduct and releases it into the environment
immediately surrounding the pre-biotic compound or even the
photosynthetic organism. Photoautotrophs on land would not
only be susceptible to lethal ultraviolet radiation, but they
also release oxygen into the surrounding atmosphere.
“Life,
Life on earth, Metabolism – A green plant is a typical
example of a photoautotroph. It uses sunlight to break
water into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen is then combined
with carbon dioxide to produce such energy-rich organic molecules
as ATP and carbohydrates, and
the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“On
July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft had touched down on Mars, and the Friedmanns,
along with millions of other Americans, had listened to Cronkite
describe the historic landing…But mission
biologists eventually concluded that the soil on Mars was
sterile: no life, they said, could survive the combination
of ultraviolet solar radiation, extreme dryness, and lethally
oxidizing compounds found on the planet’s surface.”
– “Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places,”
by Will Hively, DISCOVER, Vol. 18 No. 05, May 1997, Astronomy
& Physics
Similarly,
photoautotrophs in water release oxygen into their surrounding
water.
“Bacteria,
VII BACTERIA IN OUR DAILY LIVES – During photosynthesis, cyanobacteria also release oxygen, which dissolves
in the water. A great variety of aquatic organisms rely
entirely on this oxygen for their survival. Many scientists
are concerned that breakdown of the ozone layer may damage
cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton, threatening the survival
of the organisms that depend on them for food and oxygen.”
– "Bacteria," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia
99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Consequently,
there is simply no way for the ultraviolet light scenario
to work. Even if all the improbabilities and obstacles facing
the origin of a self-replicating RNA molecule also capable
of causing protein synthesis were overcome at the right depth
of ocean water with submarine clays available to prevent the
water from breaking them down, there still would be nothing
to protect these molecules from destruction by oxygen. Consequently,
even if the chicken-and-egg dilemma between DNA, RNA, and
enzymes were solved by RNA, the larger chicken-and-egg dilemma
would remain. The only solution to prohibitive role of oxygen
is the presence of a membrane capable of protecting essential
molecules from oxygen. But this requires not only the arrival
of RNA and a membrane at the same time and at the same location,
but also that these 2 items would somehow combine and interact
to bring about this essential protective function and without
isolating the RNA from other resources needed for self-replication
and protein synthesis. This coinciding arrival and assembly
of RNA and a functional membrane again defies probability
to the point of implying foresight, just as was stated to
be the case concerning the probability of DNA, RNA, and enzymes
or the four base pairs of DNA all arriving in a coinciding
manner.
“Scientists
considering the origins of biological molecules confronted
a profound difficulty. In the modern cell, each of these molecules is dependent on the other
two for either its manufacture or its function. DNA, for
example, is merely a blueprint, and cannot perform a single
catalytic function, nor can it replicate on its own. Proteins,
on the other hand, perform most of the catalytic functions,
but cannot be manufactured without the specifications encoded
in DNA. One possible scenario for life's origins would have to include the possibility
that two kinds of molecules evolved together, one informational
and one catalytic. But this scenario is extremely complicated
and highly unlikely.” – “The Beginnings
of Life on Earth,” Christian de Duve, American Scientist,
September-October 1995
“It
seems very unlikely that protometabolism produced just
the four bases found in RNA, A, U, G and C, ready
by some remarkable coincidence to engage in pairing and allow
replication. Chemistry does not have this kind of foresight.”
– “The Beginnings of Life on Earth,” Christian
de Duve, American Scientist, September-October 1995
Once
again, the quotes below by secular sources, evolutionary scientists,
and mainstream scientific magazines assert and attest to these
insurmountable problems facing the evolutionary theory as
it currently stands.
The
quote blow attests to the fact that membranes are necessary
to protect against harmful chemicals and elements in the environment
in general. Below we will see that oxygen is specifically
listed as one of these harmful elements.
“Essential
Ingredients – ‘Water is necessary for life,’
says Steven Benner. ‘At some point the nucleotide components
had to move into an aqueous environment.’ Also
essential are fats, from which cell membranes are constructed.
In every organism, genetic material is housed
inside a membrane that keeps dangerous substances out
while letting in food and other necessary molecules. After
the ribose, nucleobases, and phosphate combine to form nucleotides,
fats are required to make this membrane.” – “What
Came Before DNA?,” by Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 25
No. 06, June 2004, Biology & Medicine
"Cell, The plasma membrane – A thin membrane, some .005 micrometre across,
surrounds every living cell, delimiting the cell from the
environment around it. Enclosed by this plasma membrane
are the cell's constituents, often large, water-soluble,
highly charged molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids,
carbohydrates, and substances involved in cellular metabolism.
Outside the cell, in the surrounding water-based environment, are ions,
acids, and alkalis that are toxic to the cell, as well
as nutrients that the cell must absorb in order to live and
grow. The plasma membrane, therefore, has two functions: first, to be a barrier
keeping the constituents of the cell in and unwanted substances
out; and second, to be a gate allowing transport into
the cell of essential nutrients and movement from the cell
of waste products." – Encyclopaedia Britannica
2004 Deluxe Edition
“The
membrane of any cell has to do many things at once. It has
to be impermeable enough to keep essential things (like DNA)
in and harmful things (like viruses and poisons) out.
Yet a cell membrane can’t form a perfect seal. It has
to be able to flush out waste and heat from its own system
and take in nutrients from the surrounding medium. And the
first cell membrane, like the membranes of many single-celled
organisms today, probably had to be able to collect energy
as well.” – By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No.
11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
Consequently,
given this role for membranes, it is not a surprise that all
life that we observe today has a membrane.
“All
organisms alive today keep their DNA, RNA, and proteins together
inside cell membranes. These oily bubbles prevent big
molecules from getting out while letting smaller food molecules
in.” – “What Came Before DNA?,” by
Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 06, June 2004, Biology &
Medicine
In
the quote below, the phrase “at some point in the evolution
of biological catalysts” is simply shorthand to refer
to the origination of self-replicating molecules, such as
hypothetical self-replicating and catalytic RNA, which we
discussed at length in our previous section. As such, this
quote is asserting that membranes are regarded as an absolutely
necessary, early step in any progression toward the origin
of life.
“Cell,
The evolution of cells, The development of genetic information
– At some point in the evolution of biologic
catalysts the first cell was formed. This would have required the partitioning of the primitive soup of biologic
catalysts into individual units, each surrounded by a membrane.
Membrane formation might have occurred quite simply, since
many amphiphilic molecules—half hydrophobic (water-hating)
and half hydrophilic (water-loving)—aggregate to form
bilayer sheets in which the hydrophobic portions of the molecules
line up in rows to form the interior of the sheet and leave
the hydrophilic portions to face the water. Such bilayer sheets
can spontaneously close up to form
the walls of small, spherical vesicles, as do the phospholipid
bilayer membranes of present-day cells. As
soon as the biologic catalysts became compartmentalized into
small individual units, or cells, the units would have
begun to compete with one another for the same ingredients
in the surrounding soup. Now the development of variant, but
efficient, catalysts would have served only the cell itself
and its progeny, rather
than being dissipated throughout a much larger volume.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
In
fact, membranes are deemed so necessary in order for the origin
of life to occur that some evolutionary scientists have advanced
what they call “the membrane first” hypothesis.
“When
he returned to Davis, Deamer pursued the membrane first hypothesis, experimenting
with mixtures of three compounds researchers believed existed
on the early Earth: fatty acids, glycerol, and phosphates.
In the right concentrations, he found, they formed into lipids,
and in turn, the lipids spontaneously assembled into liposomes.”
– “First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER
Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
The
relegation of membranes as first in the chain of events or
nearly first, further highlights the need for RNA and membranes
to originate and assemble in a coinciding functional manner
that defies probability to the point of requiring teleology.
In fact, as we continue to see quotes from this Discover
article, we will see that the entire article is about developing
a scenario in which RNA and membranes could have developed
in a coinciding manner.
The
next quote below from Discover magazine goes on to simply assert that you cannot have
life until you have a membrane and so, in order to explain
the origin of life, you have to explain how essential pre-biotic
molecules “got encapsulated in a cell.”
“To
most who search for life's origins, genes are everything.
But as David Deamer keeps reminding them, without a container for those genes, there can be no life…Part of the definition of life, says
David Deamer, is that
it is in a place…For the past 18 years, though,
Deamer has been gently reminding his colleagues that these
questions define only part of the puzzle of life. DNA does not float loosely through the oceans.
Life is constrained in a place--or, to be more specific, within
a boundary. Life is chemical interaction, and for that interaction
to occur, life’s molecules must be close to one another.
Without a physical boundary of some sort, without a skin,
a bark, or a cell membrane, an organism is nothing more than a diffusing
blur of molecules. To
explain how the first creature came to be, you have to explain
how its innards got to be distinguished from its surroundings.
In other words, you’ve got to explain how the first
single-celled creature got encapsulated in a cell…A cell membrane’s importance to life
is often underappreciated, says Deamer. People say, ‘Well,
it’s just a little bag.’ But it’s much more.
It’s the interface between life and everything that’s
outside.” – “First Cell,” By Carl
Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology &
Medicine
Later
on in the same article, the author specifically identifies
some sort of hypothetical self-replicating precursors of modern
RNA as the “molecules” that need to have gotten
encapsulated into a membrane.
“There
are many exotic new ideas these days about where life originated.
Some researchers say the grand event took place around the
furnaces of underwater hydrothermal vents; others look
in the spray of ocean bubbles; and still others prefer clay. But Deamer’s choice is tide pools,
an idea that harks back at least as far as Darwin’s
warm, still ponds. Twenty years ago researchers showed that
the wet and dry cycles of actual tide pools could bond together
several precursors
of RNA. It seemed reasonable to think that these pools
could have been the cradle for genetic molecules, and it was likely that liposomes would have sloshed into the pools as well.”
– “First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER
Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
For
the record, the term “liposome” in the quote above
is a reference to hypothetical bubble-like structures that
have been suggested as potential precursors of modern membranes.
“In
the early sixties biophysicist Alec Bangham of the Animal
Physiology Institute in Cambridge, England, made a remarkable
discovery about lipids: they can put themselves together.
When he extracted lipids from egg yolks and threw them into
water, he found that the lipids would naturally organize themselves
into double-layered bubbles roughly the size of a cell. Bangham’s
bubbles soon became known as liposomes.” –
“First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16
No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
Furthermore,
the reason that these lipid bubbles are believed to be a potential
precursor to modern membranes, is that modern membranes, although
much more sophisticated, are also comprised of lipids.
“When
Deamer began his work on membranes as a graduate student in
the early sixties, biologists were just learning what membranes were made of: thin films
of oil composed of molecules called lipids, tadpolelike
things with little heads and long tails. The heads are made
of charged groups of atoms, such as sugars or phosphates,
while the tails are long chains of uncharged carbon and hydrogen
atoms.” – “First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer,
DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
And
this is why the following quote states that lipids are essential
for life (right alongside proteins and nucleic acids), which
also indirectly indicates that membranes are essential for
life.
“Protein
– complex molecule composed of amino acids and necessary
for the chemical processes that occur in living organisms.
Proteins are basic constituents in all living organisms…All
known enzymes, for example, are proteins and may occur in
very minute amounts; nevertheless, these substances catalyze
all metabolic reactions, enabling organisms to build up the chemical substances-other proteins,
nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids-that are necessary
for life.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004
Deluxe Edition
In
the next quote below (which we have already seen above), free
nucleic acids are contrasted with the idea of nucleic acids
inside a cell. Thus, inside a cell as opposed to free nucleic
acids outside a cell, refers to the arrival of a cell membrane,
dividing items within the cell from the external world. Notice
that this quote consequently suggests that the membrane was
necessary to protect the cell from the presence of oxygen
in its external environment, which would have been harmful
to the otherwise unprotected “free nucleic acids.”
“Life,
The origin of life, The earliest living systems –
Even the evolution of enzymatic reaction chains may have occurred
in free nucleic acids before
the origin of the cell. The
cell may have arisen in response to the need for maintaining
a high concentration of scarce building blocks or enzymes,
or as protection against the gradually increasing abundance
of oxygen on the primitive Earth. Oxygen is a well-known poison to many biological
processes, and in contemporary higher organisms the mitochondria
that handle molecular oxygen are kept in the cytoplasm, far
from contact with the nuclear material...As the competition
for building blocks increased among early life forms, and
also perhaps as the
abiological production of organic molecules dwindled because
of the increasing oxygen abundance, the strictly heterotrophic
way of life became more and more costly.” – Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
It
is important to keep in mind that this membrane-development
scenario is itself necessary in order to make even the ultraviolet
light scenario work by providing the required protection from
oxygen that would otherwise destroy any progression toward
the origin of life. In order to understand the obstacles that
face the membrane-development scenario, and therefore, further
disable the ultraviolet light scenario, we need to explore
exactly the membrane-development scenario.
The
first questions concern how exactly the liposomes (the simple,
hypothetical bubble-like precursors to modern membranes) might
form and how the essential pre-biotic molecules could get
associated with them and eventually get inside them. The quote
below asserts with very little detail that these liposomes
simply form spontaneously in mixtures of lipids and water
and simply that the chemical reactions might have taken place
on their surface or inside them. But this is just a summary
and no explanation is given for how and why these things might
occur.
“Life, The origin of life, Modern theories
– Scientists have developed three major theories to explain
the transition from early organic molecules to living cells.
All three theories are based on the idea that the simple organic
compounds formed more complex ones, which then gave rise to
the structures that make up cells…A third theory is based on the facts that cell-like structures with
membranes will form spontaneously in mixtures of certain lipids
and water and that such structures fold into shells the size
of small cells. This theory claims that the chemical reactions
leading to the formation of complex organic compounds took
place inside and on the surface of these shells. Scientists
are experimenting to determine which, if any, of these theories
corresponds most closely to the known facts.” –
Worldbook, Contributor: Harold J. Morowitz, Ph.D., Robinson
Professor of Biology and Director of Krasnow Institute, George
Mason University.
Fortunately,
Discover magazine
doesn’t just give a summary, but actually includes the
details theorizing how these 2 crucial events might unfold.
The origination of liposomes starts with fatty acids, glycerol,
and phosphates, all of which evolutionists believe existed
on the early earth.
“When
he returned to Davis, Deamer pursued the membrane first hypothesis, experimenting with mixtures of three compounds
researchers believed existed on the early Earth: fatty acids,
glycerol, and phosphates. In the right concentrations, he
found, they formed into lipids, and in turn, the
lipids spontaneously assembled into liposomes.”
– “First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER
Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
These
elements will then form lipids, which will naturally assemble
into the small “shells” (or liposomes) mentioned
in the Worldbook article above.
“In
the early sixties biophysicist Alec Bangham of the Animal
Physiology Institute in Cambridge, England, made a remarkable
discovery about lipids:
they can put themselves together. When he extracted
lipids from egg yolks and threw them into water, he found
that the lipids would naturally organize themselves
into double-layered bubbles roughly the size of a cell.
Bangham’s bubbles soon became known as liposomes. Deamer was intrigued when he learned of these cellular shells.” –
“First Cell,” By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16
No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
To
get the necessary pre-biotic compounds inside these “shells”
or liposomes, you have to put them in shallow pools, which
would have been heated by the sun until they were fully dried,
and then re-hydrate them.
“A
short trek inland, in a grove of redwoods, is Deamer’s
new lab, where he has been for the past year. Santa Cruz is
a more appropriate setting for his work than the flat farms
around Davis; what is happening down on the beach is much
like what Deamer thinks happened at the dawn of life.
He [Deamer] opens a
jar of lipids, extracted from egg yolk, and mixes some
of the clear oil into a small test tube of water. To the naked
eye the water seems
unchanged, except that it has taken on a slightly milky quality;
in actuality it is now
full of microscopic bilayered bubbles. Deamer extracts
a few drops from the mixture and puts
them on a glass slide…Why don’t we get the hot plate going?...That’s
our tide pool, Deamer says, nodding
toward the hot plate. Imagine a
primitive sun beaming down on that. We’re
going to let it dry down…After
a few minutes of primordial heat, the lipids and DNA on the
slide have dried into a thin film. Deamer
fills his tide pool again by adding a few drops of water…Looking
through the eyepieces, you can see lipids squirting out from
the dried film into the surrounding water. At first they writhe
like snakes; gradually they swell into bubbles. Some of them
are dim, but others glow with the intense fluorescent green
dye attached to the DNA. The glow is clear proof that as
the planes of lipids curled up into vesicles, the DNA that
had been sandwiched in between them got trapped inside.”
– By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November
1995, Biology & Medicine
“There
are many exotic new ideas these days about where life originated.
Some researchers say the grand event took place around the
furnaces of underwater hydrothermal vents; others look in
the spray of ocean bubbles; and still others prefer clay.
But Deamer’s choice is tide pools, an idea that harks
back at least as far as Darwin’s warm, still ponds.
Twenty years ago researchers showed that the wet and dry cycles of actual tide pools could bond together several
precursors of RNA. It seemed reasonable to think that
these pools could have been the cradle for
genetic molecules, and it was likely that liposomes would
have sloshed into the pools as well. All this organic
stuff is accumulating on early beaches, Deamer says, and the sun is heating and drying it, and lots of natural experiments are taking
place that I’m trying to re-create in the laboratory.”
– By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November
1995, Biology & Medicine
However,
there are other problems with the membrane-development scenario,
which in turn leaves the ultraviolet scenario without a working
solution.
First,
although amino acids have also been produced through re-hydration
indicating that evaporation pools might be a possible location
for the formation of such compounds, evolutionary scientists
question the viability of the “dry heating and return
to solution” aspect of this scenario.
“Life,
The origin of life, Production of polymers – Dehydrating agents must be used to initiate polymerization. The polymerization of amino acids to form
long protein-like molecules was accomplished through dry heating
by a U.S. investigator, S.W. Fox. The polyamino acids
that are formed are not random polymers and have some distinct
catalytic activities. The geophysical generality of dry heating
and return to solution, however, has been questioned.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004
Deluxe Edition
Second,
even when these questionable re-hydrating techniques were
used to get RNA inside the liposomes, the RNA doesn’t
and “can’t do anything” but simply “fills
up” the entire “primitive membrane.”
“The
researchers began by forming liposomes out of 14-carbon lipids and used Deamer’s
tide pool method to capture an enzyme known as an RNA
polymerase. In modern cells this
enzyme grabs nucleotides and puts them together into RNA.
Four nucleotides are needed to make real RNA, but for simplicity’s
sake, Deamer and his co-workers used only one…The liposomes had indeed allowed nucleotides to enter through their
pores, and the polymerase had assembled them into RNA.
The researchers thus showed that primordial
liposomes forming in tide pools could have performed some
essential cellular tricks…As an analogy to early life,
their quasi cell has obvious limits, Deamer and Chakrabarti know.
It builds simplified
RNA, using only one nucleotide rather than the full complement
of four, and once the RNA is produced, it can’t do anything--it simply fills up the liposome.” – By Carl Zimmer,
DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
Third,
as indicated by the closing sentences of the quote above,
it is important to note that even if there were total success
in these experiments, that it would still be a long way from
the origin of life because several essential parts of the
process would remain without explanation, including the need
to demonstrate how growth and division are managed and a much
fuller model for exactly how energy is utilized in this process.
Fourth,
it is important to note from the quote above how much the
scientists have had to simplify the process in order to make
it work. They are using only one single nucleotide as opposed
to the usual four required in all observed life. (By using
only one nucleotide, the experiment doesn’t address
the prohibitive improbabilities of life originating without
foresight using all four nucleotides, each originating on
its own and all four being available at the same place and
time.) Additionally, these experiments are also using “rare,”
specially selected liposomes with smaller 14-carbon-long tails
as opposed to the lipids that are have tails “16 to
18 carbon atoms long” that are found in modern cells.
The reason that the liposomes have to be specially selected
with tails 14-carbon atoms long is that other sizes simply
don’t allow the process to work.
“One
big problem was that these early membranes would simply have
been too good at separating what they enclosed from the environment
outside. A cell needs to pull in ions and toss
them out all the time, so
it overcomes its membrane’s impermeability with intricate
channels, pumps, and shuttles. Swallowed by a liposome, a
primitive genetic molecule would have been unequipped to manufacture
channels through the membrane. The liposome would not be a
shelter but a prison--or at least, so it seemed. People
think that membranes are permeable to nutrients and ions only
if you put a channel through them, says Deamer. That’s
the end of the story, because that’s the way it’s
brought up in textbooks. But he has recently discovered that
the textbooks are wrong. Modern
cells contain lipids with tails 16 to 18 carbon atoms long,
with the rare 14-carbon tail appearing in some microbes. Tails
with 12 or fewer atoms don’t appear in any cell membranes,
anywhere. To determine the effect of tail length on permeability,
Deamer prepared lipids with a range of tails and tried
to make liposomes with them. By measuring how well they could
trap charged dye molecules, he could measure their impermeability.
Short tails, he found, couldn’t form bilayers at all; the best
they could manage were little clumps of particles. Lipids
with tails of at least 16 atoms, on the other hand, formed
tightly sealed liposomes that held their dye stubbornly.
However, tails with
10 to 14 atoms could also form liposomes, though they were
leaky…In 1992, Chakrabarti managed
to slip amino acids, which are three times bigger than potassium,
through the leaky membrane. Perhaps, the researchers speculated,
the earliest membranes were made of such short-tailed lipids;
then, once the first cells had the genetic machinery up and running to make
protein channels, they could make lipids with longer tails
for better insulation without
starving themselves.” – By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER
Vol. 16 No. 11, November 1995, Biology & Medicine
Here
there is a trade off. Lipids with short tails (apparently
less than 10 carbon atoms long) don’t form liposomes
or bubbles at all. Conversely, lipids with tails of 16 carbon
atoms or longer, such as found in modern cells, formed liposomes
with that were so tightly sealed that they prevented the experimental
chemicals from getting either in or out. Consequently, to
allow for the necessary permeability, the scientists selected
lipids with tails from 10 to 14 carbon atoms long even though
tails of 12 or less carbon atoms are never found in observed
cells and tails of 14 carbon atoms are “rare.”
This kind of contemplative selection process, which was necessary
in order to guarantee functionality, is equivalent to employing
foresight during the experiment. And frankly, it completely
countermands any attempt to demonstrate the origin of life
through automatic, routine processes that occur without foresight.
Fifth,
as indicated by the quotes below, the initial chemical reactions
necessary to transform basic pre-biotic compounds in a forward
process toward life are “highly unstable” and
would require “aid” from catalysts to keep them
from “spontaneously degrading.”
“As
the basic molecules
of life move from space to a planetary environment, they
begin to interact and undergo
chemical reactions that produce larger and more complicated
molecules. These larger molecules will ultimately become the
building blocks of the earliest life-forms. The initial
chemical reactions are highly unstable and require
the aid of minerals to keep the newly formed organic building
blocks from spontaneously degrading. Steven Benner, a
biochemist at the University of Florida, theorizes that minerals
containing borate may have acted as a catalyst in “stabilizing
and guiding” these vital chemical processes.”
– “What Came Before DNA?,” by Carl Zimmer,
DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 06, June 2004, Biology & Medicine
So,
not only would RNA and all 4 nucleotides have to make it inside
the membrane, but also these hypothetical “minerals”
necessary to keep the initial chemical reactions inside the
liposome from “spontaneously degrading.”
And
finally we arrive at the most significant barrier to the membrane-development
scenario. As mentioned earlier, to get the necessary pre-biotic
compounds inside these “shells” or liposomes,
you have to put them in shallow pools, which would have been
heated by the sun until they were fully dried, and then re-hydrate
them.
“A
short trek inland, in a grove of redwoods, is Deamer’s
new lab, where he has been for the past year. Santa Cruz is
a more appropriate setting for his work than the flat farms
around Davis; what is happening down on the beach is much
like what Deamer thinks happened at the dawn of life.
He [Deamer] opens a
jar of lipids, extracted from egg yolk, and mixes some
of the clear oil into a small test tube of water. To the naked
eye the water seems
unchanged, except that it has taken on a slightly milky quality;
in actuality it is now
full of microscopic bilayered bubbles. Deamer extracts
a few drops from the mixture and puts
them on a glass slide…Why don’t we get the hot plate going?...That’s
our tide pool, Deamer says, nodding
toward the hot plate. Imagine a
primitive sun beaming down on that. We’re
going to let it dry down…After
a few minutes of primordial heat, the lipids and DNA on the
slide have dried into a thin film. Deamer
fills his tide pool again by adding a few drops of water…Looking
through the eyepieces, you can see lipids squirting out from
the dried film into the surrounding water. At first they writhe
like snakes; gradually they swell into bubbles. Some of them
are dim, but others glow with the intense fluorescent green
dye attached to the DNA. The glow is clear proof that as
the planes of lipids curled up into vesicles, the DNA that
had been sandwiched in between them got trapped inside.”
– By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November
1995, Biology & Medicine
“There
are many exotic new ideas these days about where life originated.
Some researchers say the grand event took place around the
furnaces of underwater hydrothermal vents; others look in
the spray of ocean bubbles; and still others prefer clay.
But Deamer’s choice is tide pools, an idea that harks
back at least as far as Darwin’s warm, still ponds.
Twenty years ago researchers showed that the wet and dry cycles of actual tide pools could bond together several
precursors of RNA. It seemed reasonable to think that
these pools could have been the cradle for
genetic molecules, and it was likely that liposomes would
have sloshed into the pools as well. All this organic
stuff is accumulating on early beaches, Deamer says, and the sun is heating and drying it, and lots of natural experiments are taking
place that I’m trying to re-create in the laboratory.”
– By Carl Zimmer, DISCOVER Vol. 16 No. 11, November
1995, Biology & Medicine
Specifically,
it is important to note that the pools must be shallow, because
they have to frequently dry up and then re-hydrate in order
to provide the theoretical mechanism for how RNA gets trapped
inside the liposome bubble. As we have stated, the membrane-development
scenario is necessary in order to make the ultraviolet scenario
work because without it, the ultraviolet scenario provides
no means of protection from oxygen that would prohibit the
origination of life. However, as covered in detail earlier,
the ultraviolet scenario must take place in water that is
“some tens of meters” deep at the least in order
to avoid having the ultraviolet light itself destroy the important
pre-biotic compounds. For reference, here again are the quotes
establishing that without protection by dozens of meters of
water, ultraviolet light will eradicate any potential progression
toward life.
“Life, The origin of life, The antiquity
of life – The fossil record, in any complete sense,
goes back only about 600,000,000 years.
In the layers of sedimentary rock known by geological methods
and by radioactive dating to be that old, most of the major
groups of invertebrates appear for the first time. All these
organisms appear adapted to life in the water, and there is
no sign yet of organisms adapted to the land. For this reason,
and because of a rough similarity between the salt contents
of blood and of seawater, it is believed that early forms
of life developed in oceans or pools. With
no evidence for widespread oxygen-producing photosynthesis
before this time, and for cosmic abundance reasons described
above, the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere
in Precambrian times was very likely less than today. Accordingly,
in Precambrian times, solar ultraviolet radiation, especially
near the wavelength of 2,600 Å, which is particularly destructive
to nucleic acids, may have penetrated to the surface of the
Earth, rather than being totally absorbed in the upper atmosphere
by ozone as it is today. In the absence of ozone, the ultraviolet
solar flux is so high that a lethal dose for most organisms
would be delivered in less than an hour. Unless
extraordinary defense mechanisms existed in Precambrian times,
life near the Earth's surface would have been impossible.
Sagan suggested that life at this time was generally restricted
to some tens of metres and deeper in the oceans, at which
depths all the ultraviolet light would have been absorbed,
although visible light would still filter through…It
has been suggested that the colonization of the land, about
425,000,000 years ago, was possible only because enough ozone
was then produced to shield the surface from ultraviolet light
for the first time.” – Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Bacteria,
VII BACTERIA IN OUR DAILY LIVES – During photosynthesis,
cyanobacteria also release oxygen, which dissolves in the
water. A great variety of aquatic organisms rely entirely
on this oxygen for their survival. Many
scientists are concerned that breakdown of the ozone layer
may damage cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton, threatening
the survival of the organisms that depend on them for food
and oxygen.” – "Bacteria," Microsoft®
Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
“Life,
Extraterrestrial life, The chemistry of
extraterrestrial life – Life on Earth is structurally
based on carbon and utilizes water as an interaction medium…The
planet, therefore, should have an atmosphere and some near-surface
liquid, although not necessarily an ocean. If
the intensity of ultraviolet light or charged particles from
the sun is intense at the planetary surface, there must be
some place, perhaps below the surface, that is shielded from
this radiation but that nevertheless permits useful chemical
reactions to occur…Organisms
that live slightly subsurface, however, may avoid ultraviolet
and charged particle radiation and at the same time acquire
sufficient amounts of visible light for photosynthesis.”
– Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
“Life,
Extraterrestrial life, Molecular factors
– But life does
require an interaction medium, an atmosphere, and some
protection from ultraviolet light and from charged particles
of solar origin.” –
Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 Deluxe Edition
Even
if all the other problems with the membrane-development scenario
were resolved or ignored, this is clearly the most debilitating,
fundamental, and insurmountable problem for the membrane-development
scenario, and ultimately for the ultraviolet light scenario
as well. In attempting to provide the ultraviolet light scenario
with the necessary protection from oxygen (by means of a membrane),
the membrane-development scenario requires a shallow environment
(to get the organic material inside the membrane), which results
in direct exposure to destructive ultraviolet light. Consequently,
as it currently stands, evolutionary theory as a whole has
no explanation for how to avoid both prohibitive damage by
ultraviolet light and oxygen at the same time in a single
scenario.
In
summary, we can see that membrane-development scenario, which
is necessary for the ultraviolet light scenario to avoid failure
due to the presence of oxygen, is itself faced with barriers.
Its basic mechanism of re-hydration is questioned by some
scientists. The chemical compounds involved have been highly
simplified and specially designed and selected for functionality,
which incorporates teleology and nullifies automatic, routine
processes as the mechanisms. This high degree of simplification
avoids addressing the enormous improbabilities of life originating
without foresight in a real scenario that accurately reflects
what we actually observe all around us in nature. And even
when the simplified RNA enters into the specially selected
liposome, it can’t do anything further along the progression
toward life but simply fills up the space. Any minerals necessary
to keep the unstable, complex chemical reactions inside the
liposome from degrading are still missing. Ultimately, the
shallow water setting inherently robs the entire process of
necessary protection from lethal ultraviolet radiation that
prevents the origination of life. And finally, in the same
way that teleology is indicated by the improbability of any
coinciding origin of proteins and DNA or all four base pairs
functionally ready to interact with one another, the coinciding
origin and assembly of a membrane and a self-replicating,
catalytic precursor, such as some hypothetical form of RNA,
likewise defies probability to the point of indicating teleology
and foresight.
“Scientists
considering the origins of biological molecules confronted
a profound difficulty. In the modern cell, each of these molecules is dependent on the other
two for either its manufacture or its function. DNA, for
example, is merely a blueprint, and cannot perform a single
catalytic function, nor can it replicate on its own. Proteins,
on the other hand, perform most of the catalytic functions,
but cannot be manufactured without the specifications encoded
in DNA. One possible scenario for life's origins would have to include the possibility
that two kinds of molecules evolved together, one informational
and one catalytic. But this scenario is extremely complicated
and highly unlikely.” – “The Beginnings
of Life on Earth,” Christian de Duve, American Scientist,
September-October 1995
“It
seems very unlikely that protometabolism produced just
the four bases found in RNA, A, U, G and C, ready
by some remarkable coincidence to engage in pairing and allow
replication. Chemistry does not have this kind of foresight.”
– “The Beginnings of Life on Earth,” Christian
de Duve, American Scientist, September-October 1995
In
conclusion, concerning the various environments and energy
sources suggested for the origin of life under evolutionary
conditions, we can see that evolutionary theory as it currently
stands does not have a working scenario for how automatic,
routine processes proceeding without foresight could result
in the origin of life. The life-prohibiting meteorite and
cometary bombardment of the earth at the exact timeframe when
life would have to originate on earth creates a
lack of time for life to originate at any point in the
known history of the earth.
“That’s
worried people for the last 10 to 15 years, says Christopher
Chyba, a planetary scientist based at NASA’s Ames Research
Center, south of San Francisco. There
seems to be a contradiction between the fact that we’re
here and evidence that early Earth was not very hospitable
to the formation of organics. How do you resolve the dilemma?”
– How Did Life Start?, by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER,
Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992, Biology & Medicine
Furthermore,
the obstacles involving the need for energy as well as safety
from other prohibitive factors create an additional chicken-and-egg
scenario, in which items like ultraviolet light or oxygen
have to be both present and cannot be present, in order for
life to originate. This creates the
lack of any feasible environment in which life could originate.
The
obstacles involving the functional interdependence among cell
components such as RNA, DNA, proteins, enzymes, ribosomes,
carbohydrates, fats, and membranes create an irreducible complexity
and a lack of the simplicity necessary for
items to slowly evolve from basic chemicals to sophisticated,
interacting, chemical systems.
In
addition, resolving the “energy and safety environmental”
chicken-and-egg dilemma as well as the interdependent cell
component chicken-and-egg dilemma at just the right time,
just when hostile meteoric conditions were subsiding, creates
a situation that inherently requires coinciding events that
defy probability and display the foresight and purposeful
coordination of teleology. And, as we have seen, these facts
have been established using secular sources, evolutionary
scientists, and mainstream scientific magazines. Even Stanley
Miller himself asserted that simply no one knows how the first
self-replicating system could have originated, no matter what
energy source or environment they are utilizing.
“When
Miller analyzed the brew, he found that it contained amino
acids, the building blocks of protein. The lightning had reorganized
the molecules in the atmosphere to produce organic compounds…People were stunned. Articles appeared in major newspapers across the
country…Thus
emerged the picture that has dominated origin-of-life scenarios.
Some 4 billion years ago, lightning (or another energy source,
like ultraviolet light or heat) stimulated a hydrogen-rich
atmosphere to produce organic compounds, which then rained
down into the primitive ocean or other suitable bodies of
water such as lakes, rivers, or even a warm little pond, as
Charles Darwin once suggested. Once there, these simple compounds,
or monomers, combined with one another to produce more complicated
organics, or polymers, which gradually grew even more complex until they coalesced
into the beginnings of self-replicating RNA. With that came
the RNA world and ultimately the evolution into cells and
the early bacterial ancestors of life. The
picture is powerful and appealing, but not all origin-of-life
researchers are convinced. Even Miller throws up his hands at certain
aspects of it. The first step, making the monomers, that’s
easy. We understand it pretty well. But then
you have to make the first self- replicating polymers. That’s
very easy, he says, the sarcasm fairly dripping. Just like
it’s easy to make money in the stock market--all you
have to do is buy low and sell high. He laughs. Nobody knows
how it’s done. Some would say the statement applies
as well to the first easy step, the creation of simple organic
compounds.” – “How Did Life Start?,”
by Peter Radetsky, DISCOVER, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1992,
Biology & Medicine
Consequently,
our definition of evolutionary theory on the issue of the
origin of life is not a biased description. Instead, it is
entirely accurate to describe the evolutionary theory for
the origin of life in the following terms:
4)
Various theoretical scenarios are offered for the origin of
life. And although each individual scenario is acknowledged
to be insufficient due to environmental prohibitions involving
chemicals and energy sources, the known geologic history of
the earth, and statistical improbabilities particularly those
surrounding the arrival of cellular systems that are currently
irreducibly functionally interdependent, the origin of life
is asserted to be the result of automatic, routine processes,
in a yet unobserved environment perhaps even occurring on
another planet at an unknown time in the past when conditions
and time allotments would be ideal.
As
indicated by the closing lines of this definition, these interlocking
barriers prohibiting the development of even a theoretical
suggestion for the origin of life on earth without foresight
(let alone observing or demonstrating such a theory experimentally)
are so well-recognized that many evolutionary scientists have
abandoned any earth-based origin for life in favor of life
originating on another planet, where conditions could be more
ideal. This brings us to the last controversial aspect of
point 4 of the definition of evolutionary theory.