[fishtank]

James Tour is a giant in the field of organic chemistry.

Image and caption from Proslogion article.

[Iron Munro]

"We have no idea how some of the most basic molecules necessary for life could have been produced by unguided processes."

Clear enough for me.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Anybody with much of a background in chemistry or physics is aware that atoms are basically an erector set that can be used to create anything, including living creatures.

In other words, the blueprint for life is built into the very structure of matter.

How did that happen? That’s the real question.

[2nd Amendment]

All we know is that God didn’t do it because God has moral requirements on man. Therefore there is no god, it happened by chance and 99.99% of scientists believe life occurred by random chance.

[organicchemist]

One of my doctoral students did a sabbatical with him. Interesting guy. Rice is the birthplace of ‘buckyballs’ and he is part of a big presence there in nanotechnology. As built molecules whose structures look like little caricatures. Turned it into a educational web site called the Nanokids

http://cohesion.rice.edu/naturalsciences/nanokids/

[N. Theknow]

Bumpitybumpforlater

[Rinnwald]

Uhh...Carl Sagan said early earth had all the ingredients for starting life. On “Cosmos” he mixed a bunch of organic materials into green goop in a flask, and pronounced it building blocks for pre-life. He looked at it with a gleam in his eye as if he had really done something. Taught me all I needed to know about the hubris of science.

[tumblindice]

“Dr. James Tour Tells Us How Little We Know About the Origin of Life”

That’s a hallmark of an educated man: being able to say that although he may know a lot about little, there’s also a lot that he knows very little about.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/10/30/the-3-characteristics-of-an-educated-man/

[blackpacific]

Wow, thank you so much for posting this. A Giant. GIANT.

My genius teenage son will benefit immensely from hearing this lecture. It will instill in him both a sense of wonder at the glories of nature and a sense of scepticism with regard to ignorant claims about life arising from the primordial soup.

The very stones will cry out.