Commentaries on origin-of-life chemistry, prebiotic scenarios, autocatalysis, metabolism-first models, and claims about life from non-life.
23 commentaries in this topic.
Paper: Self-Reproduction and Darwinian Evolution in Autocatalytic Chemical Reaction Systems
The scientific paper, "Self-Reproduction and Darwinian Evolution in Autocatalytic Chemical Reaction Systems," delves into a fundamental question in origin-of-life research: how life could have emerged from primitive,…
Read commentary: The Illusion of Unguided Origins: Autocatalytic Systems and the Unexplained Emergence of LifePaper: Boron-assisted abiotic polypeptide synthesis
In the high-stakes field of origin-of-life research, scientists relentlessly seek a plausible pathway from simple, non-living chemicals to the complex, information-bearing molecules of life. A recent paper in…
Read commentary: Boron, Peptides, and the Persistent Illusion of Prebiotic SynthesisPaper: The Origin of Life: What Is the Question?
In a remarkably candid 2022 paper in the journal Astrobiology , philosophers of science Christophe Malaterre, Cyrille Jeancolas, and Philippe Nghe set out to clarify the central question of origin-of-life (OoL)…
Read commentary: The Origin of Life: A Candid Map of Materialism's Dead EndPaper: Editorial: RNA world hypothesis and the origin of life: Astrochemistry perspective
The search for the origin of life is one of science's most profound quests. A recent editorial in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences by Ashraf Ali and colleagues, titled "RNA world hypothesis and the origin of…
Read commentary: The RNA World's Interstellar Dream: A Sober Look at the Astrochemistry EvidencePaper: Is Tumorigenesis an Abiogenesis?
In a 2019 paper for the Open Access Journal of Cancer & Oncology , researcher Hugwil AV poses a provocative question: "Is Tumorigenesis an Abiogenesis?" The paper explores the cellular mechanisms of cancer, particularly…
Read commentary: Cancer's Chaos: A Failed Echo of Unguided CreationPaper: Origin of Life on Mars: Suitability and Opportunities
A 2021 paper in the journal Life by Benton C. Clark and colleagues, titled "Origin of Life on Mars: Suitability and Opportunities," argues that the Red Planet was not only habitable but possessed an environment "in many…
Read commentary: Mars: A Graveyard for Abiogenesis, Not a Cradle for LifePaper: Origin of Life’s Building Blocks in Carbon- and Nitrogen-Rich Surface Hydrothermal Vents
The quest to explain the origin of life without a creator is a search for a plausible environment where the building blocks of life could arise and assemble spontaneously. In a 2019 paper titled "Origin of Life's…
Read commentary: A Chemist's Intervention: Why Volcanic Vents Don't Build LifePaper: Viroids and the Origin of Life
The quest to explain the origin of life in purely materialistic terms remains one of the most intractable problems in science. In their 2021 review, "Viroids and the Origin of Life," Karin Moelling and Felix Broecker…
Read commentary: Viroids: Relics of an RNA World or Artifacts of a Failed Paradigm?Paper: Cofactors are Remnants of Life’s Origin and Early Evolution
The quest to explain the origin of life in purely materialistic terms is a history of failed hypotheses and speculative storytelling. In a 2021 paper, "Cofactors are Remnants of Life's Origin and Early Evolution," Aaron…
Read commentary: Molecular 'Fossils' or Design Modules? Cofactors Fail to Bridge the Origin-of-Life ChasmPaper: The origin of biological homochirality along with the origin of life
The origin of biological "handedness," or homochirality, is a profound and foundational puzzle for any theory of unguided origins. Life depends on molecules of a specific orientation—left-handed (L) amino acids and…
Read commentary: Computer Models Assume a Creator: How "Solving" Homochirality Reveals the Failures of AbiogenesisPaper: The Coevolution of Cellularity and Metabolism Following the Origin of Life
The quest to explain the origin of life and its foundational structures, like the cell, remains one of the greatest challenges for materialistic science. Proponents of unguided evolution often turn to computer…
Read commentary: Artificial Life, Real Intelligence: Why Computer Models Fail to Simulate Unguided OriginsPaper: Amyloid and the origin of life: self-replicating catalytic amyloids as prebiotic informational and protometabolic entities
The quest to explain the origin of life in naturalistic terms is fraught with chasms of improbability. One of the most popular scenarios, the "RNA World," has collapsed under the weight of its own chemical…
Read commentary: The Amyloid World: A Prebiotic Fantasy Built on Investigator InterferencePaper: Emergence and diversification of a host-parasite RNA ecosystem through Darwinian evolution
A paper published in the journal eLife by Taro Furubayashi and colleagues, "Emergence and diversification of a host-parasite RNA ecosystem through Darwinian evolution," is presented as a significant experimental…
Read commentary: Lab-Grown 'Evolution' Reveals a Process of Decay, Not CreationPaper: Chemical Diversity of Metal Sulfide Minerals and Its Implications for the Origin of Life
A 2018 paper in the journal Life titled "Chemical Diversity of Metal Sulfide Minerals and Its Implications for the Origin of Life" attempts to breathe new life into one of the most persistent narratives of chemical…
Read commentary: The Mineral Maze: Study on Sulfides Highlights the Impossibility of an Unguided Origin of LifePaper: Acetyl Phosphate as a Primordial Energy Currency at the Origin of Life
The origin of life is arguably the greatest hurdle for any theory of unguided evolution. At the heart of the problem is a classic "chicken-and-egg" dilemma: the genetic code in DNA is required to build the proteins…
Read commentary: A Primordial Power Failure: Why Acetyl Phosphate Fails as an Evolutionary EnginePaper: Cryosphere and Psychrophiles: Insights into a Cold Origin of Life?
The search for a plausible, unguided pathway from lifeless chemicals to the first living cell is the foundational project of evolutionary biology. In a 2017 review paper titled "Cryosphere and Psychrophiles: Insights…
Read commentary: A Cold Case for Evolution: Why Icy Origins Scenarios Freeze Under ScrutinyPaper: The Nitrogen Heterocycle Content of Meteorites and Their Significance for the Origin of Life
The search for the origin of life is a central theme in modern science, and papers analyzing the chemical contents of meteorites are often presented as crucial evidence for a naturalistic, unguided pathway from…
Read commentary: Meteorite Molecules: Building Blocks for Life, or a Prebiotic Dead End?Paper: The origin of life: what we know, what we can know and what we will never know
The 2013 paper "The origin of life: what we know, what we can know and what we will never know" by Addy Pross and Robert Pascal attempts to solve the seemingly intractable problem of abiogenesis by proposing a new,…
Read commentary: Pross and Pascal's 'Kinetic Stability': A New Name for an Old FailurePaper: Recent Advances in Origins of Life Research by Biophysicists in Japan
A 2019 review paper by Tony Z. Jia and Yutetsu Kuruma, "Recent Advances in Origins of Life Research by Biophysicists in Japan," published in Challenges , surveys a range of studies in the field. This research is often…
Read commentary: Japanese Biophysics Review Reveals Only Intelligent Intervention, Not Unguided OriginsPaper: The Landscape of the Emergence of Life
A 2017 conference report in the journal Life , titled "The Landscape of the Emergence of Life," attempts to provide an optimistic overview of the latest research into the unguided origin of life. The paper summarizes a…
Read commentary: A Landscape of Failure: Why Origin-of-Life Research Confirms a CrisisPaper: The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model
In the quest to explain the origin of life from non-living chemicals, scientists regularly propose elaborate, step-by-step scenarios. The paper "The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model"…
Read commentary: A Designer's Blueprint: Why a "Comprehensive" Origin-of-Life Model Reveals the Necessity of MindPaper: On the origin of life: an RNA-focused synthesis and narrative
In "On the origin of life: an RNA-focused synthesis and narrative," Jacob Fine and Ronald Pearlman undertake the ambitious task of demonstrating that Darwin's dismissal of origin-of-life speculation as "mere rubbish" is…
Read commentary: Fine and Pearlman's 'RNA World': A Narrative in Search of a Plausible OriginPaper: 1H-NMR as implemented in several origin of life studies artificially implies the absence of metabolism-like non-enzymatic reactions by being signal-suppressed
A 2018 paper in Wellcome Open Research by Markus Keller and colleagues delves into a technical dispute within the origin-of-life research community. The authors defend the "metabolism-first" hypothesis—the idea that…
Read commentary: Low-Yield Chemistry: Why 'Metabolism-First' Fails to Explain the Origin of Life