{"id":10019,"date":"2011-07-30T11:49:16","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T11:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2011\/07\/30\/we-can-know-nothing-about-the\/"},"modified":"2011-07-30T11:49:16","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T11:49:16","slug":"we-can-know-nothing-about-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/30\/we-can-know-nothing-about-the\/","title":{"rendered":"“We can know nothing about the origin of life”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Falsehood!!! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes people say this because it seems reasonable to them … what, with life originating so long ago and so much geological mushing-around happening since then. But sometimes people say this, and sound quite innocent saying it, because they want to throw the average person off track and make them think that Evolutionary Biology has this big gap — at the beginning — in which any-old kind of story can fit, including a supernatural or religious story, or even just a spiritual Jungian story, or anything but a story about molecules interacting.<\/p>\n

So, the purpose of this blog post is to be handy, to point to, to produce a link to, in answer to that question. Every time somebody says “We can know nothing about the origin of life bla bla bla” you respond with a link to this post. In the meantime, if you think there is something missing in this post that should be conveyed to anyone making that argument, please add it to the comments.<\/p>\n

Here’s the code to copy and past to link to this post:<\/p>\n

<a href=”http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2011\/07\/we_can_know_nothing_about_the.php”>”We can know nothing about the origin of life”<\/a><\/p>\n

Below are two lists. The first list is a set of blog posts by a variety of science bloggers about the origin of life. The second list is the bibliography my installation of Mendeley<\/a> (reference management software) spit out at me when I asked it to find all the references to “Origin of Life” on my hard drive or nearby localities. This includes only a subset (about 5%) of my PDF files and none of my paper files (of which there are about 5,000) of which, in turn, probably only 1 or 2% address this issue, as it is not my field.<\/p>\n

So, the reference list is provisional and just to get your stared, but also serves the purpose of demonstrating how there is quite a bit of work on the topic.<\/p>\n

At present, we know something about the origin of life. I think we could know a lot more, and I think we will eventually. The assertion that we can’t because it isn’t happening now and happened a long time ago is wrong for several reasons: 1) Are you sure it is not happening now?; 2) It could be replicated in the lab; 3) It might be happening somewhere else, or evidence of it could be found on another celestial object; and 4) Yes, indeed, it turns out that we actually can reconstruct things through inference from ancient data, modeling, and experiment that happened in the past, and do so scientifically. If you hear someone telling you that you can’t, that this is not science, that it violates the scientific method, then you are hearing the words of a person who either knows nothing about science or is telling you a lie, because science can and does address the past.<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, the lists:<\/p>\n


\nA sampling of blog posts on the origin of life:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Is the origin of life different from evolution?<\/a>
\nSuper-Hero Experiment #1: The Origin of Life<\/a>
\nThe Origin of Life and of the Atmosphere<\/a>
\nOrigins of Life – Amino Acids and the Triplet Codon<\/a>
\nOrigin of Life – RNA Self Replicators<\/a>
\nNew place, new view, slow reactions and the origins of life<\/a>
\nNASA’s new organism, the meaning of life, and Darwin’s Second Theory<\/a>
\nArsenic and Old Lace<\/a>
\nCommon ancestry of life – Q.E.D?<\/a>
\nReport from Alife XII: life’s origin, and its evolution<\/a>
\nThe origin of life cannot escape basic organic chemistry<\/a>
\nThe Origin of Life on Earth: New Research<\/a>
\nOrigin of Life (mica)<\/a>
\nAmino acid crystallisation and the origin of life<\/a>
\nThe Origin of Life: RNA?<\/a>
\nWhy are all earthly lifeforms lefties?<\/a>
\nA Simple Kind of Life<\/a>
\nLife, The Universe, and Everything Else…<\/a>
\nAvalon and the origin of multicellular life<\/a>
\nThe Origin of Life on Earth: New Research<\/a><\/p>\n

A sampling of mainly peer reviewed research and science editorial commentary related to the origin of life:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

?Albar\u00e8de, F. (2009). Volatile accretion history of the terrestrial planets and dynamic implications. Nature, 461(7268), 1227-33. Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. doi:10.1038\/nature08477<\/p>\n

Andersson, R. E. (1980). Microbial lipolysis at low temperatures. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 39(1), 36-40. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/6766702<\/p>\n

Anon. (2009). Darwin and microbiology. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 7(8), 546. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nrmicro2197<\/p>\n

Anon. (2010a). Napthalene, space & life. Nature India. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nindia.2010.38<\/p>\n

Anon. (2010b). Hydrothermal Vents ? Ocean Policy ? Ancient Greeks. Scientific American, 302(4), 8-10. Scientific American, Inc. doi:10.1038\/scientificamerican0410-8<\/p>\n

Anon. (2010c). Probing the origin of life. Nature India. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nindia.2010.132<\/p>\n

Attwater, J., Wochner, A., Pinheiro, V. B., Coulson, A., & Holliger, P. (2010). Ice as a protocellular medium for RNA replication. Nature communications, 1, 76. Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. doi:10.1038\/ncomms1076<\/p>\n

Baele, J.-M., Bouvain, F., De Jong, J., Matielli, N., Papier, S., & Preat, A. (2008). Iron microbial mats in modern and phanerozoic environments. Proceedings of SPIE, 7097, 70970N-70970N-12. Spie. doi:10.1117\/12.801597<\/p>\n

Bakermans, C. (2008). Limits for microbial life at subzero temperatures. Psychrophiles from biodiversity to biotechnology, 17-28. Springer. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.springerlink.com\/index\/p121287548h670j7.pdf<\/p>\n

Ball, P. (2010). Some like it hot. Nature. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/news.2010.590<\/p>\n

Barricelli, N. A. (1963). Numerical testing of evolution theories. Part II. Preliminary tests of performance, symbiogenesis and terrestrial life. Acta Biotheoretica, (16), 99 – 126. Retrieved from http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Genetic_algorithm<\/p>\n

Bedau, M., Church, G., Rasmussen, S., Caplan, A., Benner, S., Fussenegger, M., Collins, J., et al. (2010). Life after the synthetic cell. Nature, 465(7297), 422-4. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/465422a<\/p>\n

Beer, D. D., & K\u00fchl, M. (2001). INTERFACIAL MICROBIAL MATS AND BIOFILMS. Biofilms (pp. 374-394).<\/p>\n

Bergman, J. (2000). Why abiogenesis is impossible. Creation Research Society Quarterly, 36(4).<\/p>\n

Biello, D., & Harmon, K. (2010). Tools for Life. Scientific American, 303(2), 17-18. Scientific American, Inc. doi:10.1038\/scientificamerican0810-17<\/p>\n

Bigot, Y., Samain, S., Aug\u00e9-Gouillou, C., & Federici, B. A. (2008). Molecular evidence for the evolution of ichnoviruses from ascoviruses by symbiogenesis. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 8, 253. BioMed Central. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov\/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2567993&tool=pmcentrez&rendertype=abstract<\/p>\n

Blaney, D. L. (2002). Using Mars’s Sulfur Cycle to Constrain the Duration and Timing of Fluvial Processes, 12p.<\/p>\n

Bottrell, S. H., & Raiswell, R. (2000). Sulfur isotopes and microbial sulfur cycling in sediments. In R. E. Riding & S. M. Awramik (Eds.), Microbial Sediments (pp. 96-104). Springer-Verlag.<\/p>\n

Bouougri, E. H., & Porada, H. (2007). Siliciclastic biolaminites indicative of widespread microbial mats in the Neoproterozoic Nama Group of Namibia. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 48(1), 38-48. doi:10.1016\/j.jafrearsci.2007.03.004<\/p>\n

Bradley, A. S. (2009). Expanding the Limits of Life. Scientific American, 301(6), 62-67. Scientific American, Inc. doi:10.1038\/scientificamerican1209-62<\/p>\n

Caracciolo, A. B., Giuliano, G., Di Corcia, A., Crescenzi, C., & Silvestri, C. (2001). Microbial degradation of terbuthylazine in surface soil and subsoil at two different temperatures. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 67(6), 815-820.<\/p>\n

Carrapi\u00e7o, F., & Rodrigues, T. (2005). Symbiogenesis and the early evolution of life. Proc of SPIE, 5906, 242-245.<\/p>\n

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Chpt Aravena, R., & Mayer, B. (2010). Isotopes and Processes in the Nitrogen and Sulfur Cycles. Control, 203-246.<\/p>\n

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Dugan, J. M., & Altman, R. B. (2007). Using surface envelopes to constrain molecular modeling. Protein Science, 16(7), 1266-1273. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/17586766<\/p>\n

Dunker, A. K., & Kriwacki, R. W. (2011). The Orderly Chaos of Proteins. Scientific American, 304(4), 68-73. Scientific American, Inc. doi:10.1038\/scientificamerican0411-68<\/p>\n

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Eisenreich, W., Dandekar, T., Heesemann, J., & Goebel, W. (2010). Carbon metabolism of intracellular bacterial pathogens and possible links to virulence. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 8(6), 401-12. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nrmicro2351<\/p>\n

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Etxeberria, A., & Ruiz-Mirazo, K. (2009). The challenging biology of transients. A view from the perspective of autonomy. EMBO reports, 10 Suppl 1(S1), S33-6. European Molecular Biology Organization. doi:10.1038\/embor.2009.154<\/p>\n

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Fletcher, S. P. (2009). Building blocks of life: Growing the seeds of homochirality. Nature chemistry, 1(9), 692-3. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nchem.455<\/p>\n

Follmann, H., & Brownson, C. (2009). Darwin’s warm little pond revisited: from molecules to the origin of life. Die Naturwissenschaften, 96(11), 1265-1292. doi:10.1007\/s00114-009-0602-1<\/p>\n

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Golding, S. D., Young, E., Duck, L. J., Baublys, K. A., & Glikson, M. (2006). Multiple sulfur isotope constraints on microbial processes in Archaean seafloor environments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 70(18, Supplement 1), A208. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/B6V66-4KPNB29-BG\/2\/bc958f74f3546305f290509d0780e079<\/p>\n

Goldman, N., Reed, E. J., Fried, L. E., William Kuo, I.-F., & Maiti, A. (2010). Synthesis of glycine-containing complexes in impacts of comets on early Earth. Nature chemistry, 2(11), 949-54. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/nchem.827<\/p>\n

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Harris, T. (2010). Evidence for RNA origins. Nature, 464(7288), 494-494. Nature Publishing Group. doi:10.1038\/464494a<\/p>\n

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Hessler, A. M., & Lowe, D. R. (2006). Weathering and sediment generation in the Archean: An integrated study of the evolution of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks of the 3.2Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Precambrian Research, 151(3-4), 185-210. doi:10.1016\/j.precamres.2006.08.008<\/p>\n

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Falsehood!!! Sometimes people say this because it seems reasonable to them … what, with life originating so long ago and so much geological mushing-around happening since then. But sometimes people say this, and sound quite innocent saying it, because they want to throw the average person off track and make them think that Evolutionary Biology … Continue reading “We can know nothing about the origin of life”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2638],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-2BB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}