Origin of Life (Origins)

by dhw, Monday, August 02, 2010, 16:21 (5225 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George has drawn our attention to an extremely interesting video ... a lecture given by John Maynard Smith on The Origin of Life:-http://humanistheritage.org.uk/articles/john-maynard-smith-Perhaps the title is a little misleading, as it promises rather more than it can deliver. However, like George I found it generally easy to understand, and was delighted with its clarity and its neutrality. JMS lists the main problems: where did the units come from, how were they "zipped" together, and how were they able to attain the necessary degree of accuracy? While acknowledging and explaining the enormous complexity of the code of heredity, he offers a theory that this may have evolved gradually from a stage at which the units were doing something simpler. This he calls "a plausible guess", and goes on to say: "It may not be right." -One can hardly say fairer than that. The origin of life is something which at the moment we can only speculate about ... and maybe we shall never be able to get beyond speculation. However, this lecture (like David Turell's book) is full of illuminating insights which are particularly helpful to non-scientists like myself. I'll be interested to hear David's response. It certainly helps us to appreciate the immense progress science has made and is making in its study of what constitutes life, though as always it's up to us what conclusions we draw from these findings. Maynard Smith was actually an atheist, but his lecture is totally free from religious/anti-religious references, concentrates solely on the science, and does not pretend to have definitive fillings for the remaining gaps in the pattern. An educative model of its kind. Once again, many thanks to George for this reference.