Life originated in “a warm little pond,” Charles Darwin wrote to Joseph J. Hooker, the founder of geographical botany within Darwin’s circle of colleagues. How, where, and when the first species got started, however, completely escaped Darwin.
In contemplating the origin of life dilemma, Darwin noted in his autobiography –
“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us, and I, for one, must be content to remain an agnostic.”
The “mystery of the beginning” has continued into the twenty-first century. With the development of modern technologies, however, scientists now have unparalleled opportunities. Many individuals and organizations have launched origin of life initiatives to solve “the hardest question in science.”
Origin of Life Initiatives
In 2005, Harvard University jump-started the twenty-first-century origin of life initiatives with a seed grant of $1 million from The Jeffrey Epstein Foundation. The research project is now known as the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative.
Harold Lonsdale, a scientist, businessman, politician, and atheist, founded a $2 million Origin of Life Challenge: How Did Life Begin competition in 2011. Proposing to study the self-organizing RNA world hypothesis, John Sutherland of the Medical Research Council Laboratory in Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and Matthew Powner of University College, London, won the competition.
The RNA world hypothesis has emerged as evolution’s most promising origin of life theories. The hypothesis was the brainchild of Alexander Rich (1924–2015), an American biologist and biophysicist.
According to Rich, self-replicating RNA molecules were generated before the evolution of DNA and proteins.
NASA
NASA has supported a range of origin of life initiatives to understand the origin of life. Now, individual grants totaling $40 million have been approved to be issued by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
An $8 million grant was issued to Carl Woese and Nigel Goldenfeld to define life. However, in an interview with journalist Suzan Mazur, the unconventional Woese summarized the current state of origin of life research, noting –
“That’s the problem. We don’t know what it [life] is.”
NASA launched the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover, officially known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), in November 2011 to study Mars. The goal of the mission is –
“Determine if Mars was ever able to support microbial life.”
Astrobiology Critics
Astrobiology has critics, even within the evolution industry. According to evolutionist Jerry Fodor of Rutgers University –
“Astrobiology doesn’t exist. What are the laws?”
Robert Hazen, an evolutionary research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory, explains what really drives interest in astrobiology –
“Astrobiology is growing tremendously because there is a stable source of funding. Let’s face it. Science is a social endeavor. If people can get jobs, they’re going to go into the field.”
David Demer, director in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shares his thoughts on the future of astrobiology –
“In my judgment, it is implausible that life came to Earth in the form of extra-terrestrial spores or microorganisms.”
Self-Organization
The immense challenge facing evolutionary scientists is self-organization, certainly not natural selection. Scientists have yet to discover the natural mechanism for a molecular self-organization process. Along with the RNA world of Lonsdale, Sutherland, and Matthew, Stuart Kauffman is a leading proponent of self-organization. However, Kauffman has been a critic of the RNA world hypothesis. In an interview with Suzan Mazur, Kaufmann explains –
“They [evolutionary molecular scientists] tried for 40 years to get single-stranded RNA molecules to replicate, perhaps hundreds of chemists, and they all failed. It should work. But it hasn’t. And after 40 years or 50 years, you think — maybe it’s the wrong idea. People really tried hard.”
Even if chemists could create self-replicating molecules in the laboratory, Kauffman explains –
“Now, there’s another huge question. Just because a smart chemist can create a collectively autocatalytic peptide set in a test tube, that leaves open the question of how one could arise on the early Earth without a smart chemist.”
European Organization for Nuclear Research
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), has launched many origins of life initiatives. In February 2013, CERN plans to convene in closed-door conferences to develop a unified consensus on the “fundamental physics” of the Universe. Why? Because one does not exist.
Established in 1954, CERN has yet to discover how particles, including electrons, protons, and neutrons, self-organized into a range of complex atoms, nor has CERN solved the problems with antimatter, dark matter, the early Universe, Higgs boson, and the standard model of physics.
With the investment of decades of research and trillions of dollars, science has yet to solve Darwin’s “mystery of the beginning” dilemma. In the words of David Koch, chemical engineer multi-million dollar donor to the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institute,
“Life started somehow. The details of how it started I don’t think anyone will ever be able to prove.”
Genesis
The Genesis account written by Moses was embraced by the founders of the scientific revolution. William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, an Irish mathematical physicist and engineer who formulated the first and second laws of thermodynamics, explains –
“We feel that the power of investigating the laws established by the Creator for maintaining the harmony and permanence of His works is the noblest privilege which He has granted to our intellectual state.”
Developing a scientific consensus on the mechanisms of evolution still remains speculative.
Click to study further the current initiatives to develop a scientific consensus on the theory of evolution and other crucial Evolution and Science investigations.
Darwin Then and Now is an educational resource on the intersection of evolution and science and the challenges facing the theory of evolution.
Links
- Glossary defines terms associated with explaining the theory of biological evolution.
- Understanding Evolution is a journey that showcases how different investigative approaches play a pivotal role in enriching our understanding of the process, leading to diverse conclusions.
- Studying Evolution delves into the terms species and natural selection and how they have changed since The Origin of Species was published in 1859.
- What is Science investigates Charles Darwin’s approach to science and how the principles of modern science are used for different investigative purposes.
- The Evolution and Science category features articles studying how the intersection of evolution and science influences the current understanding of evolution.
- The Theory and Consensus category features articles examining how scientific findings are influencing the scientific consensus on the essential tenets of evolution, including Natural Selection.
2020 Update
The Royal Society, in 2019, announced the Origin Of Life: $10 Million Prize competition, spearheaded by Perry Marshall, an American marketing consultant. The challenge overview is “What is the secrete of life?”
“Origin of Life is the hardest question in science. No one knows how the first cell came about. But there’s a simpler, more fundamental question: Where did the information come from? An answer will trigger a quantum leap in Artificial Intelligence. This may be as big as the transistor or the discovery of DNA itself. A new $10 million prize seeks a definitive answer.”
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- Prize entries are being accepted at herox.com/evolution2.0.
- Voices From Oxford’s official prize announcement page
According to WIKIPEDIA (2020),
“The origin of life on Earth is a scientific problem that is not yet solved. There are many ideas but few clear facts.”
