What makes life vital (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 27, 2015, 14:15 (3136 days ago) @ romansh

Romansh: http://www.science20.com/stars_planets_life/calculating_odds_life_could_begin_chance&am... 
> > The results were amazing. After only 4 rounds of selection and amplification they began to see an increase in catalytic activity, and after 10 rounds the rate was 7 million times faster than the uncatalyzed rate. It was even possible to watch the RNA evolve.-Nice try. You've picked out a line from an article I know well and have used in my books. I'm referring to this study in the column you presented:-"Now I will recall a classic experiment by David Bartel and Jack Szostak, published in Science in 1993. Their goal was to see if a completely random system of molecules could undergo selection in such a way that defined species of molecules emerged with specific properties. They began by synthesizing many trillions of different RNA molecules about 300 nucleotides long, but the nucleotides were all random nucleotide sequences."-Started with trillions of possibilities!!!-Then used electrophoresis:-"Nucleic acids can be separated and visualized by a technique called gel electrophoresis. The mixture is put in at the top of a gel held between two glass plates and a voltage is applied. Small molecules travel fastest through the gel, and larger molecules move more slowly, so they are separated."-You left this out purposefully. Was such an apparatus present 3.6 billion years ago?-From the article:-"Bartel and Szostak's results have been repeated and extended by other researchers, and they demonstrate a fundamental principle of evolution at the molecular level. At the start of the experiment, every molecule of RNA was different from all the rest because they were assembled by a chance process. There were no species, just a mixture of trillions of different molecules. But then a selective hurdle was imposed, a ligation reaction that allowed only certain molecules to survive and reproduce enzymatically."-Conclusion for wishful thinking atheists: What is described is intelligent design in laboratories, nothing more. Where do all the nucleotides and polymerizing enzymes on early Earth come from? And so far from the lab research done to date, no ribozyme developed in a lab can reproduce with the accuracy of life on Earth today. and without that accuracy there is no life!