Well maybe. I am rather skeptical because I have a great
deal of respect for what Mother Nature is able to do. It really is a negative argument, but if it
were possible to produce a parallel inorganic biological evolution, then it
already exists somewhere and somehow on earth in some environment able to
sustain it. We have seen no sign of it
and earth has been engineered by life into its present regime.
Yet this good work that can lead
to a more secure understanding of life’s possibilities.
I presently think that life arises
early and is easily dispersed throughout space.
I also suspect that certain natural choices make our present forms
almost inevitable. The tough question is
to discover just how much variability is real in our DNA and how much DNA is
inevitable.
My main point now is that life is
successful and aggressive at dispersal.
Never underestimate it. I read
too many texts fifty years ago explaining how all today’s knowhow in biology
and natural history was implausible. To
do inorganic life processes is an interesting challenge. If it can be done, then my argument is that
it was done. So why have we not found
the evidence or have we?
Scientists make first step towards bringing life to inorganic matter
By Darren
Quick
23:20 September 15, 2011
The iCHELLs created by a team from the University
of Glasgow could be the first step on
the road towards creating 'inorganic life' (Image: University of Glasgow
All life on Earth is carbon-based, which has led to the widespread
assumption that any other life that may exist in the universe would also be
carbon-based. Excluding the possibility of elements other than carbon forming
the basis of life is often referred to as carbon chauvinism and researchers
at the University
of Glasgow
Just like biological cells, the cells created by Professor Lee Cronin,
Gardiner Chair of Chemistry in the College
of Science
However, the ultimate goal of the project is to demonstrate that
inorganic chemical compounds are capable of self-replicating and evolving, just
like organic, biological carbon-based cells.
Prof Cronin says the current theory of evolution is really a special
theory of evolution because it only applies only to organic biology. He says
that if he and his team are successful in creating life from inorganic matter,
it could lead to a general theory of evolution.
"The grand aim is to construct complex chemical cells with
life-like properties that could help us understand how life emerged and also to
use this approach to define a new technology based upon evolution in the
material world - a kind of inorganic living technology," said Prof Cronin.
"If successful this would give us some incredible insights into evolution
and show that it's not just a biological process. It would also mean that we
would have proven that non carbon-based life could exist and totally redefine
our ideas of design."
Prof Cronin gave a talk at TED Global earlier this year in Edinburgh where he
said that if his team is successful in creating life while taking carbon out of
the equation, it might reveal what other elements might be capable of producing
life elsewhere in the universe and provide NASA with a better idea of what to
look for in the search for extraterrestrial life.
The University
of Glasgow
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