origin of life (The atheist delusion)

by David Turell , Monday, June 09, 2008, 01:35 (6010 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Here's the latest news. I just read it on the Richard Dawkins net, and thought I should share it here.
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> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604140959.htm
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> It's a simulation of what a "protocell" might have been like. And it works, despite being much simpler than the more evolved cells that exist now. Looks like a great step towards explaining the early evolution of life. - I went to the article George suggested as a 'great step' noted above; from the article: "Szostak's team carefully analyzed vesicles comprised of different fatty acid molecules and identified particular features that made membranes more or less permeable to potential nutrient molecules. They found that, while large molecules such as strands of DNA or RNA could not pass through fatty acid membranes, the simple sugar molecules and individual nucleotides that make up larger nucleic acids easily crossed the membrane. - To further explore the function of a fatty acid cell membrane, the researchers used activated nucleotides they developed for this study that will copy a DNA template strand without needing the polymerase enzyme usually required for DNA replication. After placing template molecules inside fatty-acid vesicles and adding the activated nucleotides to the external environment, they found that additional DNA was formed within the vesicles, confirming that the nucleotide molecules were passing through the fatty-acid membranes." - Please note the enormous amount of intelligent design by the scientists. Just making some activated nucleotides involves strands of about 15-20 nucleotides, literally a very small RNA-like strand. Just having nature make such a strand is an enormous accomplishment, the odds against which are stupendous. - George's note to us is wonderful wishful thinking. Copying what nature has shown us doesn't really tell us how it happened, and in doing the copying we have to use the molecules nature gave us. We have no experimental findings to tell us how RNA started, how the complicated coded information arose. Using passive fatty acid micelles is one of the older unproven theories that has been around for many years. As the authors of the article point out, current living membranes are very different, using chemical pumps to get chemicals in and out of the cell. The authors, by using micelles, make the assumption that life 'had' to start simply. We don't know that.