The Origin of Life

• the ability to process energy
• the ability to store information
• the ability to reproduce

• that is the cell
• I have a MORE DETAILED write up on the cell: click here - if you want to learn more about it.

• When Darwin formulated his "evolution theory", the did not have good microscopes and the cell was a blob to him without any structure

• Darwin thought that a cell was simple and without structure....

• We now know that a cell is like a complex factory consisting of many different components - each with a distinct function. Each part/component is necessary in the entire operation of the cell

• Cells are built/consist of complex molucules called proteins

• Protein molecules are themselves made from more simple molecules called amino acids

• So let's talk about Amino-acids first....

• Amino-acid molecules have the following form:
  

• Each amino-acid has a Carbon (C) molecule as core bound to:
  • an "amino"-group (which is a base)
  • an "acid"-group (which is an acid )
  • a Hydrogen-atom (H)
  • a fourth compound - which determine the nature of the amino-acid.

• There are 80 different amino acids in nature

  But... only 20 of them are used in building protein molecules used in living cells

• Here are some examples of amino-acids used to build proteins in living cells:
  

• Because amino-acid molecules have BOTH base and acid properties and (from your chemistry class) base and acid molecules react with each other; so also, different amino-acid molecules will react with one another:
  

  NOTICE that AFTER two animo-acid molecules react with one another, the resulting molecule also has an animo-group and an acid-group.

  So this new (bigger) molecule can react with a third amino-acid molecule to form an even longer molecule:

  

• The resulting longer molecule is called a poly-peptide chain

• This game can gone on, until the animo-group and the acid-group of the same complex molecule react with each other.

  When that happens, the resulting molecule is a protein

• A protein molecule consist of a chain of amino-acid molecules.

• The properties of a protein molecule depends on every single amino-acid molecule in the chain and depends on the order of these amino-acid molecules

• With 20 amino-acid, you can make an INFINITE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT amino-acid molecules !!!

  This is just like using 26 letters in the English alphabet, we can make an infinite number of words (some words may not be in the English vocabulary - e.g., abbakadabrahashimhasham)

• 19 of the 20 amino-acids (all except Glycine) used in living cells can come in two DIFFERENT FORMS that is caused bu the SYMMETRY in the molecules.

  Such molecules are called "mirror-isotopes" (in Dutch)

• What is symmetry:
  

  There is NO WAY to make one molecule be IDENTICAL to the other one.

• On a MOLECULAR scale, two symmetrical molecules have IDENTICAL chemical properties

• BUT.... a protein molecule has "secondary (and ternary) structures": the long peptide chain of amino-acid molecules in a protein molecule is FOLDED

  IF you replace an amino-acid molecule in a protein with its symmetry counter-part, the new protein molecule will FOLD DIFFERENTLY

  As a result, different active part in the protein will be EXPOSED and chemical property of the new protein molecule will be DIFFERENT

• For one reason that is UNKNOWN to Science, ALL amino-acid molecules used in living cell are the "left-handed variant" (see: click here)

  (They distinguish the two different variants of the mirror-isotope as "left-handed" and "right-handed" - this is because a solution of the "left-handed" varient will rotate a beam of polarized light to the left, and a solution of the "right-handed" varient will rotate a beam of polarized light to the right....)

• Also, when SOME amoni-acid in a protein is REPLACE by its RIGHT-HANDED isotope, the protein become INERT - (useless to the living cell),

  BTW, this is how they make "non-fat" fat (used in chips !) - the fat molecule contains some right-handed amino-acid

• Scientist in Darwin days believe that the cell is "clomp of stuff" - like a clump of doug....

  (Don't call them stupid, because they can't know better with their poor quality microscopes)

• We now know much better - the cell is like a microscopic city:
  • It imports specific ground material (it will reject material that it does not want)
  • It will transport the imported material to the right processing plants for processing.
  • It will transport the harmful by-products (waste) away.
  • It will (try to) repair any damange in any of its facilities.
  • In short - a cell does EVERYTHING that people in a city would do....

• The membrane contains special transport molecules that only certain (useful) protein molecule can bind.

  Once, bounded, the transport molecule "flips" inward and the (useful) protein molecule is "sucked" into the cell.

  So the membrane is a selective barrier

  NOTE: Viruses that make us sick "tricks" the cell by presenting the some useful molecule to the cell to "sneak" into the cell (maskerading)

• The Microtubes are long strings of molecules that form paths in a cell - these paths are used to transport certain proteins from one place to another

• The sugar molecules that enetr the cell membrane will be transported to the MITOCHONDRIUM

  The mitrochondrium contain enzymes (accelerators) that use the energy in the sugar molecule to change (3) "ADP" molecules into (3) "ATP" molecules.

  The ATP molecules are like "energy packets" - all activities in living cells that use energy uses the energy from ATP molecules.

• Everything in the cell is made out of protein - cell membrane, micro-tube, mitochondrium, yes, even your hair !

• BUT.... not all cells are created equal:
  • Cells from DIFFERENT persons are DIFFERENT

  • More specifically: every part of the cell from different person CAN be different.

    For example: Cell membranes from different persons are different.

    You can tell this because:

    • Some people are blessed with a certain cell membrane that DOES NOT have the ability to "suck" in the AIDS virus (it is in fact that same ability to "suck" in the Bubonic Plague virus in the Middle Ages)

    • These people are immune to the AIDS virus !!!

• The kind of membrane, mitochondrium, etc, in the cell that a cell make depends on the DNA molecules !!!

• As I mentioned before:
  EVERYTHING in the cell is made of PROTEIN

• So the kind of membrane that some person makes, depends on the KINDS of proteins his cell used in making the membrane.

• That in turn, depends on what is in the DNA of the cell....

• Before we can discuss WHY cells made by different people are different, we have to look at what DNA is...

• From your Biology class, you may still remember that the genetic information is stored/contained by the DNA molecules in every cell....

• Every cell contains a nucleus which is a "bag" inside the cell that contains all the DNA molecules

• A DNA molecule is a very long string of 4 different molecules:
  

• The 4 molecules use in making the DNA molecule are NOT amino-acid molecules !!!

  I think the reason that this is so is because the Creator tries to communicate with us through science - I will explain this later.

  Here are the 4 molecules used in making (all) DNA molecules:

  

  

  The molecules are:

  • Adenine (abbreviated as: A)
  • Thymine (abbreviated as: T)
  • Guanine (abbreviated as: C)
  • Cytosine (abbreviated as: G)

• DNA is a dubble helix, and:
  • A and T are always paired.
  • C and G are always paired.

• One of the molecule A, T, C and G is called a "base" and because DNA is a dubble helix, every A, T, C and G is paired with its counter part; so micro-biologists most always use "base pair" to call these molecules.

• For a reason known to science, the number THREE is very important in DNA (trinity ?)

• Every THREE base pairs will "select" one specific amino-acid

• Here are the steps that the cell perform to make a protein that it needs:
  1. Zip open the DNA dubble helix that contains the part of the GENE used to make the needed protein
  2. Copy the GENE (a part of the DNA) - the copied gene is called a "messenger RNA"

     

  3. Transport the "messenger RNA" to a Ribosome - this organ contain enzymes to contruct proteins (protein making factory).
  4. The RNA is "shifted" through the Ribosome; and all along, other SHORTER messenger RNA will BRING amino-acid molecules to the Ribosome to be "string together" - ONLY the RIGHT amino-acid can be string into the NEXT empty spot in the chain:
     

• Different human beings (except idenitical twins) have different DNA molecules (different genes)

• Therefore, we all make different protein molecules (eye color, hair color are caused by proteins; so is immunity to AIDS, and other deseases)

• So does LIFE (living cells) come about by chance ?

  This is what the "Theory" of Evolution is teaching

• Or is life DESIGNED (by some very smart genious) ?

  This is what the Bible teaches

• So do we have evidence to help us conclude which is more credible ?

  For a long time, the scientific community has been championing Evolution.

  But the more science learned about the processes in the living cell, and the fossil records, more and more informed scientists are turning away from Evolution.

• Abiogenesis is the THEORY (NOT fact) that living cells were "assembled" from non-organic molecules such as H₂O, CO₂, N₂, etc through a NATURAL process (in other words: without the intervention of God)

• The Theory conjectures that long long long long time ago, ONE (maybe more, but at least one) very primitive living cell was put together natural processes such as a thunder storm, a volcanic erruption, or some process that involves the transmission of energy

• This is somewhat used to "jumpstart" the Theory of Evolution (more later) because the Theory of Evolution does not specifically deal with how life began, but with how life diversified.

• The Abiogenesis theory has its origin in the (now discredited) "Miller experiment"....

• The origin of abiogenesis is the Uery/Miller experiment in 1953.

• Miller was a student of Uery at Univ. of Chicago. In 1953, Uery and Miller performed their experiment to try to create life in a bottle from anorganic matter

• They postulate that the early earth had a reducing atmosphere that does not contain oxigen. They believe that earth's atmosphere consists mostly of N₂, NH₃, CO₂, H₂O, H₂ and CH₄ (but no O₂ - this is important because O₂ will destroy any amino acid molecules that you would try to create)

• Here is a picture that show their experimental setup:

                         

• They started their experiment with a mixture of the following gases:

                         

• Their experiment was able to produce the following organic compounds:

                         

                         

                         

• Later, similar experiments have even construct a number of poly-peptide chains/protein molecules - consisting of a maximum of 30 amino-acids

  This was obviously wonderful news for people that did not want to believe in God - it was their "proof" that life CAN be a result of natural processes.

• Scientist in the 60's - 80's believed that chemicals present in the atmosphere of the primordial earth, helped along by lightning, CAN produce amino acids and proteins

• Scientist than assumed that given enough TIME, random combinations of the amino acids can produce enough proteins start building living cells

• Random combinations of the proteins MAY produce a primitive living cell...

• Informed micro-biologist (not your highschool biology teacher !) nowadays knows that Miller's experiment is meaningless - nothing more than an "interesting experiment" that has NO value.

• The reason that Miller's Experiment has no value is:

  Evidence from geology (deep earth rocks) shows that the primitive earth did not have much CH4, NH3 and H2.... Scientists now believe that the early atmosphere consists of H2O, CO2 and N2 With H2O, CO2 and N2 in Miller's experiment, you get NO amino acids AT ALL !!!...

• In other words: Because the pre-condition of the experiment was not met, the significance of Miller's experiment today is zilch....

  Reference: The Case of a Creator, Lee Strobel and many others.

• But what do you see however ?
  Text books used in highschool still teach this lie as a scientific fact !!!

  You may wonder ***why*** many Evolutionist zealots decide to keep this lie in the text books ?

Even before scientist discovered that the early earth atmosphere was not full of methan (CH₄, so even WITH the assumption that the atmosphere was made up of the gasses as Miller has assumed, there are still unsurmontable problems to create a living cell in a bottle...

• Sufficiently high level of concentration:
  • Molecules are very very tiny

    The chance that 2 different amino-acid molecules will "bump into each other" to combine into a larger molecule depends on the concentration.

  • It is a huge problem to create the amino-acid molecules in great concentration because:
    the same power (electricity) that created the amino-acid molecules is also deadly to them (you DO know that when you're struck by a bolt of lightning, you will probably die - a lot of the amino-acid molecules have been fried....)

  • BTW, Miller has no problem collect a lot of amino-acid from his experiment:
    notice the outlet at the bottom of the tubing ?

    Well, they use this outlet to siphon away the amino-acid before they get destroyed :-).

    Obviously, you don't have this little convenience in nature.....

  • The evolutionists tried to propose solutions to the low concentration problem by proposing that some environment like mud can shield the amino-acids from being destroyed

  • No matter what they tried, the longest peptide chain that they can produce in a laboratory is about 35 amino-acids.

    In contrast, proteins used by living cells have hundreds and some even thousands of amino-acids.

• Chemical affinity:
  • Amino-acid is both a weak base and a weak acid (that's why it can form long chains by having the base of one molecule bind to the acid part of another molecule)

  • Amino-acids are notoriously inefficient to react with ONE ANOTHER.

  • In nature, there are much more aggresive chemicals that can "jump in" to react with the amino-acids (any strong base or acid will latch on to amino-acids...)

  • One such candidate is CO₂: when CO₂ dissolves in water, it forms a (relatively much stronger) acid H₂CO₃

    These molecules would gobble up most if not all amino-acids and stop the abiogenesis cold turkey....

• Preference to left-handed mirror molecules in life
  • All but one amino-acids used in living cells have both a left-handed and both a right-handed variant

                           

    Living cells ONLY uses the LEFT-handed variant

  • When amino-acids are formed by a natural process, it will produce an equal amount of LEFT-handed and RIGHT-handed variant of the SAME amino-acid molecule.

    Proteins that contains one or more right-handed molecules are inactive.... (here is an article on this subject: click here)

  • So a chancy construction of proteins in nature that tries to construct a protein molecule (that consist of hundred, sometimes thousands of amino acids) by randomly picking amino-acid molecules will have an astronomically small chance of picking ONLY LEFT-handed molecules
    • the chance to pick 10 left-handed molecules in a roll is 2^-10 or about 0.001
    • the chance to pick 20 left-handed molecules in a roll is 2^-20 or about 0.000001
    • the chance to pick 100 left-handed molecules in a roll is 2^-100 or about 0.000000000000000000000000000001

    • BTW, the chance of winning the lottery by picking 6 number out of 45 is: 0.000000122....
    • BUT... You still CAN believe you can win it all by buying ONE ticket.... (yeah right, if you're really really lucky)

• Evolutionists counter with the theory that this chancy encounter is happening all over the earth, so that increase the chance of success.

  But as I argued previously, the number of sites where you can accumulate a sufficiently high concentration of amino-acids cannot be very high due to the hostile environment.

• And by-the-way, even if you manage (with incredibly small chance to assemble a "right" protein (one with only left-handed amino-acid molecules), you are not even half-way to a living cell.... you need to assembler a few hundred of these "right" protein in the right order to make one gene. And all the while, you have to make sure you avoid picking up the other useless "protein" molecules that contain one or more right-handed amino-acid.

  The odds of getting it right just decreased to a number that makes winning the lottery look a sure thing....

Fred Hoyle - who is a physicists (who discovered the resonance between He, Be and C atoms) and an ATHEIST -- click here - put the likelihood of creation of a cell through random encouters of molecules this way:

"This scenario (a huge number of amino-acid molecules bouncing against each other and creating a living cell) is about as likely as a tornado whirling through a junkyard and accidentally assembling a fully functional Boeing 747"...