Tag: origin of life

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
December 14, 2020

Categorized
Faith and Science

Tagged
amino acid chains, amino acids, ATP, ATP synthesis, Biological Information, cells, cellular information, chemical evolution, chemical reactions, disorder, DNA, Elbert Branscomb, energy, engines, entropy, enzymes, equilibrium, feedback loops, fidelity, free energy, high energy, improbable states, information, Jeremy England, low entropy, Michael Russell, molecular engines, Molecular Machines, Natural Selection, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, order, origin of life, physical impossibilities, polymers, pre-biology, Proteins, Stanley Miller, Yasir Demirel}

James Tour and Brian Miller Talk Engines We Can’t Live Without

_{Brian Miller

December 14, 2020

Faith and Science}

Today’s ID the Future features Part 1 of an extended interview that first appeared on a podcast show hosted by distinguished Rice University synthetic organic chemist James M. Tour. As he typically does, since it’s the Science & Faith podcast, Dr. Tour begins his show by asking his guest for a statement of faith. Miller, a Christian, gives his, and then they dive into origin-of-life science. In a surprisingly accessible discussion given the depth of the material, the pair cover a range of issues—thermodynamics and the origin of the first cell, entropy, free energy, order and disorder, molecular engines, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and the need for engines and information to overcome the vicissitudes of entropy. Also in the mix—feedback loops, Jeremy Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Denton

Date
September 30, 2020

Categorized
Science

Tagged
__edited, amoeba, cell, elements of life, fine-tuning, fitness paradigm, Intelligent Design, Jacques Monod, Michael Denton, origin of life, periodic table of elements, primal blueprint, prior fitness, Privileged Species, protozoa, single-cell organism, The Miracle of the Cell}

A Reading from Michael Denton’s New Book, The Miracle of the Cell

_{Michael Denton

September 30, 2020

Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from the new book The Miracle of the Cell by Michael Denton. Denton, a biochemist from Perth, Australia, and senior fellow of Discover Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, introduces the wonders of the cell as “the universal constructor set of life.” The diversity of cells — their variety of form, function, and locomotion — is beyond describing, with some cells almost seeming sentient, even ingenious. As Denton notes, our growing knowledge of the cell’s staggering sophistication has provoked the name “the third infinity.” And this quick flyby of the cell is just an excerpt from the book’s introductory chapter. There Denton lays the groundwork for the book’s deeper dive into the Read More ›

Quantum physics, time quantum travel. Nanocosmos, nanoworld

^{Type
post

Author
James Tour

Date
September 18, 2020

Categorized
Human Origins, Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, Albert Einstein, Alexander Vilenkin, Big Bang, cosmic microwave background radiation, Don Ewert, exobiology, general relativity, inflation field, inflationary cosmology, multiverse, origin of life, quantum cosmology, red shift, Scott Minnich, SETI, string theory, Theology, virulence}

James Tour and Stephen Meyer on the Origin of Life, Pt. 3

_{James Tour

September 18, 2020

Human Origins, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, Rice University synthetic organic chemist and inventor James M. Tour continues his conversation with Stephen C. Meyer. Read More ›

Hybrid Biotechnology - Biomimicry - Abstract Illustration

^{Type
post

Author
James Tour

Date
September 16, 2020

Categorized
Human Origins, Science

Tagged
__edited, abduction, abiogenesis, Brian Miller, causal adequacy, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, complex specified information, dissipation theorems, Inference to the Best Explanation, intelligent agency, intelligent causes, Intelligent Design, Jeremy England, origin of life, second law of thermodynamics}

James Tour and Stephen Meyer on the Origin of Life, Pt. 2

_{James Tour

September 16, 2020

Human Origins, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, James M. Tour and Stephen C. Meyer begin a discussion about the hard problems facing researchers trying to discover how the first life could have come about naturalistically. Meyer is the director of the Center for Science and Culture; Tour is a world-renowned synthetic organic chemist with over 700 research publications and multiple major recognitions, including TheBestSchools.org naming him one of the 50 most influential scientists in the world today. Though he doesn’t sign on to ID theory, he says he’s sympathetic with the idea, and certainly not impressed with any naturalistic explanations for the origin of life. In this first of a three-part series, they explore problems ranging from the extreme improbabilities associated with protein assembly, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
James Tour

Date
September 14, 2020

Categorized
Human Origins, Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, Big Bang, definition of life, Directed panspermia, fine-tuning, Francis Crick, Fred Hoyle, goldilocks principle, James M. Tour, origin of life, philosophy of science, Roger Penrose, Stephen C. Meyer, Stephen Meyer}

James Tour and Stephen Meyer on the Origin of Life, Pt. 1

_{James Tour

September 14, 2020

Human Origins, Science}

^{Type
post

Author
Eric H. Anderson

Date
September 2, 2020

Categorized
Human Origins, Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, Intelligent Design, Materialism, membrane first, metabolism first, Naturalism, OOL, origin of life, protocell, RNA first, RNA world, scientific Materialism}

New Origin-of-Life Proposal Revives a Hopeful Monster

_{Eric H. Anderson

September 2, 2020

Human Origins, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, host Eric Anderson talks with scientist and fellow engineer Rob Stadler about a recent origin-of-life paper and how the authors paint themselves into a corner. The context for the paper is this: Decades of research have undermined the three great hopes for a purely naturalistic origin of life — scenarios starting with some sort of metabolism, scenarios starting with some kind of membrane, and scenarios starting with RNA. All three are necessary for cellular life; none seems able to have come ahead of the others. So now some recent work described in an article in New Scientist suggests it all happened at once in a sort of “chemical big bang.” It’s the return Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric H. Anderson

Date
August 19, 2020

Categorized
Human Origins, Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, DNA, God of the gaps, Materialism, materialism of the gaps, methodological naturalism, origin of life, repair mechanisms, spontaneous generation, Stairway to Life}

The Origin of Life and the Materialism of the Gaps

_{Eric H. Anderson

August 19, 2020

Human Origins, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, host Eric Anderson speaks again with medical engineer Rob Stadler, co-author with molecular biologist Change Laura Tan of the new book Stairway to Life: An Origin of Life Reality Check. Here in Part 2 of their conversation, Stadler says that following the Miller-Urey experiments in the mid-twentieth century, researchers were optimistic that a purely naturalistic explanation for the origin of the first life was just around the corner, but since then the field has run into one obstacle after another. The challenge to mindless origin-of-life scenarios is now far greater than it was 60-70 years ago. And yet many in the field still cling to the belief that life must have arisen by Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric H. Anderson

Date
August 17, 2020

Categorized
Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, chirality, Craig Venter, DNA, homochirality, Materialism, methodological naturalism, origin of life, repair mechanisms, spontaneous generation, Stairway to Life}

New Book: The Stairway to Life Is Really a Cliff

_{Eric H. Anderson

August 17, 2020

Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, guest host Eric Anderson speaks with medical engineer Rob Stadler, co-author with molecular biologist Change Laura Tan of the new book Stairway to Life: An Origin of Life Reality Check. Stadler explains that it’s a “reality check” because many of the “stairway steps” that have to be mounted for chemistry to become biology must, very inconveniently, happen all at once. DNA can’t survive without repair enzymes, for example, but those enzymes are able to exist because they’re coded in DNA. The reality check is needed, says Stadler, because the media eagerly touts every oversold “advance” in origin-of-life research, ignore the mounting difficulties for an unguided origin of life posed by various fresh discoveries, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Paul Nelson

Date
June 22, 2020

Categorized
Intelligent Design, Science

Tagged
__edited, Adolf Grünbaum, animal phyla, dialectic, God of the gaps, Materialism, methodological materialism, methodological naturalism, origin of life, Ron Numbers, Ronald Numbers}

Paul Nelson on Freeing Minds Trapped in a Naturalistic Parabola

_{Paul Nelson

June 22, 2020

Intelligent Design, Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, philosopher of science Paul Nelson continues sharing with host Andrew McDiarmid about pursuing intelligent design theory in a science culture committed to naturalism. Or as Nelson puts it this time, it’s about trying to communicate with scientists who are trapped in a naturalistic parabola. That parabola sets the rule and defines the boundaries for science: naturalistic answers only. And it extends to infinity, so no finite number of objections or counter-examples can force naturalistic scientists out of it. Nelson, however, offers an alternative strategy for drawing them out of the parabola.

^{Type
post

Author
Eric H. Anderson

Date
June 15, 2020

Categorized
Science

Tagged
__edited, abiogenesis, Charles Darwin, Darwinian Evolution, Evolution, James M. Tour, origin of life, perpetual motion machines, Richard Dawkins, RNA, self-replicating 3-D printers, self-replicating molecule, self-replicators}

New ID Book Zeroes in on Evolution’s Zero-Probability Problem

_{Eric H. Anderson

June 15, 2020

Science}

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with Eric Anderson, one of the co-authors of the new Discovery Institute Press book Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell. Today they talk about Anderson’s second of two chapters in the book, where he explores the challenges of building a self-replicating 3D printer, and the light this sheds on the origin-of-life community’s search for their Holy Grail, a self-reproducing molecule that could have kickstarted the evolutionary process on the early earth. In their conversation, Anderson suggests that there are engineering principles involved in the origin of life that may mean that a naturalistic origin of life is less like winning a long-odds lottery, and more like the Read More ›