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On the Origins of Life
Commentary ^ | February 2006 | David Berlinski

Posted on 02/03/2006 10:23:55 PM PST by neverdem

For those who are studying aspects of the origin of life, the question no longer seems to be whether life could have originated by chemical processes involving non-biological components but, rather, what pathway might have been followed.

—National Academy of Sciences (1996)

It is 1828, a year that encompassed the death of Shaka, the Zulu king, the passage in the United States of the Tariff of Abominations, and the battle of Las Piedras in South America. It is, as well, the year in which the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler announced the synthesis of urea from cyanic acid and ammonia.

Discovered by H.M. Roulle in 1773, urea is the chief constituent of urine. Until 1828, chemists had assumed that urea could be produced only by a living organism. Wöhler provided the most convincing refutation imaginable of this thesis. His synthesis of urea was noteworthy, he observed with some understatement, because “it furnishes an example of the artificial production of an organic, indeed a so-called animal substance, from inorganic materials.”

Wöhler’s work initiated a revolution in chemistry; but it also initiated a revolution in thought. To the extent that living systems are chemical in their nature, it became possible to imagine that they might be chemical in their origin; and if chemical in their origin, then plainly physical in their nature, and hence a part of the universe that can be explained in terms of “the model for what science should be.”*

In a letter written to his friend, Sir Joseph Hooker, several decades after Wöhler’s announcement, Charles Darwin allowed himself to speculate. Invoking “a warm little pond” bubbling up in the dim inaccessible past, Darwin imagined that given “ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, etc. present,” the spontaneous generation of a “protein compound” might follow, with this compound...

(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: biology; chemistry; crevolist; evolution; god; naturalphilosophy; physics; youngearthcultists
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To: Right Wing Professor
It's also a shame to see one more rehash of the same tired and specious probabilistic arguments, and the same argument from incredulity.

Heck, without those, creationists wouldn't have very much to post....

81 posted on 02/04/2006 3:57:01 PM PST by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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Urea to diarrhea placemark


82 posted on 02/04/2006 4:01:45 PM PST by dread78645 (Intelligent Design. It causes people to misspeak)
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To: RussP
What I meant is that evolution depends on the first living cell in the sense that it starts from there. If the first living cell never appeared, no evolution could occur either.

No one claims that a "first living cell" never appeared. What is said is that how that first living cell appeared is irrelevant to evolution.

But in a deeper sense, the naturalistic premise of evolution obviously depends on how the first living cell came to be.

So which of the five scenarios that I presented must be true for evolution to occur? Why is evolution impossible if any of the other scenarios are true?

If that first cell cannot be explained by purely naturalistic mechanisms (i.e., with no "intelligent design"), then why should science be premised on that assumption for the evolution of life *after* that point?

Because science only assumes and uses naturalistic processes, and thus far evolution has passed muster as a valid naturalistic scientific explanation for the diversity of species from common ancestry.

If ID cannot be explained away *before* that point in time, then why should it be prohibited *after* that point?

ID is not "prohibited". It simply has failed to be supported by any evidence whatsoever.

Early evolutionists believed in "spontaneous generation" of living cells.

Evidence that this was ever part of the theory of evolution, please.
83 posted on 02/04/2006 4:11:37 PM PST by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: spunkets
The 20 std amino acids are all L. Of those, 19 are levorotary(l). I think arginine is (r).

Glycine is achiral, the rest are L-amino acids, although D-amino acids do exist in nature.

84 posted on 02/04/2006 4:14:56 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow
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To: VadeRetro
I'm sorry, you completely missed my point.

My only point in the earlier post was that someone mentioned that Berlinski could have clicked on one of Ichneumon's posts.

He couldn't do that, unless he actually read Free Republic.

Whether or not he knows, or should be expected to know, the information contained within Ichneumon's earlier post is another matter. And if RWP is correct, Berlinski doesn't know what on Earth he's talking about, concerning recent developments in the chemistry of abiogenesis.

He doesn't know, he doesn't point out that he doesn't know, and commits the additional error of assuming his threshold of ignorance is the same as everyone else's--and we have a number of posters pointing out exactly at which point he drives into a ditch.

That's good for the intellectual state of readers of this thread. (I have been given to understand that other famous personages, such as "The Great One" Mark Levin, and possibly Ann Coulter, read Free Republic.)

But is Berlinski himself gonna read it on this thread?

Cheers!

85 posted on 02/04/2006 4:17:37 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: spunkets
All any non bond breaking frequency can do is alter a vibration, or rotational state, if absorbed. They can't explode a molecule. I mentioned randomly oriented for the purpose of the bond breaking frequencies, which act on single bonds.

Umm, time out.

Can you photonically excite the electrons within a covalent bond to a higher energy level (n)? Thereby changing the Born-Oppenheimer surface on which the nuclei are travelling?

...and thereby change the reactivity of the molecule?

Cheers!

86 posted on 02/04/2006 4:22:31 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Senator Bedfellow

Right, glycine is achiral. There's only one D amino acid used in bacteria, I think(CRS). The rest are all converted to D after transcription.


87 posted on 02/04/2006 4:24:31 PM PST by spunkets
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To: spunkets
Of those, 19 are levorotary(l). I think arginine is (r).

Yikes, say it ain't so, Joe!

I hold in my hand a bottle of L-Arginine which I purchased upon the written recommendation of the late Dr. Atkins (in one of his Atkins Diet books, as an aid to more restful sleep.

You mean I done been flim-flammed on this purchase? :-)

Cheers!

88 posted on 02/04/2006 4:25:19 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: timer
Could you please post a link? I am unfamiliar with nomenclature such as Ring System, Remnant Core, and Roche Lobe...they sound to me like a cross between Tom Clancy and Isaac Asimov...with a little bit of Tolkien thrown in--you know, the nine who are involved with a ring, all in the throes of one whose single red eye is unbearable :-) ).

Cheers!

89 posted on 02/04/2006 4:28:20 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers
Whether or not he knows, or should be expected to know, the information contained within Ichneumon's earlier post is another matter. And if RWP is correct, Berlinski doesn't know what on Earth he's talking about, concerning recent developments in the chemistry of abiogenesis.

This is indeed the problem. FR is not a primary source of abiogenesis information. It is not even secondary. People who have done important research in the field do not publish here as the primary means of announcing their findings to the world.

Thus, asking whether Berlinksi reads the threads here is something close to irrelevant if not a strawman. The question is whether Berlinksi has availed himself of the public research of the last decade or so in abiogenesis. My particular answer based on long observation of the creation/ID publishing genre is "Yes, but only to get what he considers the 'good stuff' and leaving everything else."

Holy Warrior Recta (Latin plural of the singular rectum--look it up) are allowed to do that. It's for a good cause and all that. Traditional scholarship equates it with lying. When you say the preponderance of evidence is really A, but it's really B, you're a liar if you selectively filtered all the non-A because it doesn't work for your agenda.

90 posted on 02/04/2006 4:28:32 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: spunkets
The 20 std amino acids are all L.

glycine is achiral. In any case, there is racemization to contend with.

91 posted on 02/04/2006 4:28:50 PM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: grey_whiskers
My only point in the earlier post was that someone mentioned that Berlinski could have clicked on one of Ichneumon's posts.

I said anyone could do that, meaning "anyone here." Someone writing something that purports to be a review of where we are in abiogenesis research should not need to do that, of course.

The problem is that Berlinski has assumed the mantle of someone qualified to review where we are, but he would appear not to know anything about the evidence inconvenient to the agenda of the un-Discovery Institute of which he is a fellow.

92 posted on 02/04/2006 4:31:51 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: spunkets

I should have read ahead. But I did mention racemization.


93 posted on 02/04/2006 4:31:52 PM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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To: LibFreeOrDie
IOW, when the "Academy of Science" made an official statement including the phrase "the question no longer seems to be whether life could have originated by chemical processes involving non-biological components but, rather, what pathway might have been followed" they were overstating the case. There are plenty of reasnable questions, and more than just reasonable doubt, that life originated by designer-less random chemical processes.

By that bold claim the NAS engaged in poor science at best read, and propaganda at worst read.

94 posted on 02/04/2006 4:31:56 PM PST by bvw
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To: spunkets

D-alanine and D-glutamic acid are both important components in the peptidoglycan of bacteria.


95 posted on 02/04/2006 4:32:19 PM PST by furball4paws (Awful Offal)
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To: seastay

ping to 94. (Are you a water-affine barrister btw? So your handle might suggest from "voir dire", or "see to say".)


96 posted on 02/04/2006 4:36:56 PM PST by bvw
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To: VadeRetro; RWP
Sigh. Please re-read your post 43. For your convenience I have cut-'n-pastedTM it here:

Or, anyone can scroll down a bit in this Ichneumon post and see scientific evidence supporting a reducing Archaean atmosphere. Why does Berlinski seem unaware of this?

I meant--literally--that Berlinski was unlikely to have scrolled down a bit in the Ichneumon post.

As you so eloquently pointed out, the leading researchers in the field do not use Free Republic as a means of propagating their research. That was precisely the point I was making.

Somewhere on these threads, there must be a few dials or knobs marked Sarcasm or Dry Humor.

My only question is whether Berlinski is in fact merely *ignorant* of recent developments--see my remark about his assuming the threshold of his ignorance, and how he thinks it is the same as everyone else's.

Cheers!

97 posted on 02/04/2006 4:43:43 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers
" Can you photonically excite the electrons within a covalent bond to a higher energy level (n)?

Yes, in a single bond. There is no overlap over the whole chiral protein molecule, so there can be no change of n for the molecule. Single bonds are not involved in optical rotation, other than being a component of the whole system of bonds. Only vib and rot states can be changed for the molecule. Even in that case, single bonds amout to the bulk of the targets.

The rotation of polarized light is a dielectric response. As the frequency of the light is very close to a vib absorption peak, involving the major dielectric atomic, or molecular components, the interaction becomes more pronounced.

98 posted on 02/04/2006 4:45:27 PM PST by spunkets
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To: spunkets
Sorry, I knew that--my question was rhetorical, as a segue to the idea that electronic excitation might depopulate a species by making it more chemically reactive. A different way in which light might affect populations of enantiomers.

Cheers!

99 posted on 02/04/2006 4:48:20 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: furball4paws
"D-alanine and D-glutamic acid are both important components in the peptidoglycan of bacteria."

They are enzymatically converted from L, post translation.

100 posted on 02/04/2006 4:48:30 PM PST by spunkets
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