In a recent article in Science, (July 2017) titled “
How sunlight might have jump-started life on Earth”, writer Roland Pease tells us of e new theory set forth by Geophysicist, Robert Hazen and others postulates the possibility that maybe something as simple as ultra-violet rays could have caused a reaction in Iron-Sulphur clusters that may have formed the first enzymes. And as we know enzymes are responsible for almost all cellular functions. However there are a few assumptions that would need to be confirmed to make the theory plausible.
One of the necessary components for this reaction however are peptides, the presence of a dipeptide being the first essential step leading to the structures in living things. A peptide is defined as “
a compound consisting of two or more amino acids linked in a chain, the carboxyl group of each acid being joined to the amino group of the next by a bond of the type -OC-NH-“!
Now the one’s we are aware of at this point are all a part of a living system like:
So far (having expected to find these since the early 20th century) not a single life worthy dipeptide has been found naturally arising outside of the living system.
But recently we have been able to intelligently design some basic di- and poly- peptides inside the laboratory, like:
So the bottom line is in the actual Data we have two kinds...those we know we will find in already extant living systems, and those intelligently designed outside of a living system.
This new hypothesis therefore must ASSUME:
a) first that enzymes DID exist in the early Earth biochemistry, which rely on the presence of
b) basic Amino acid molecules already existing, and next
c) that these were all present in some kind of a primordial soup concept, around 4 billion years ago
So one hypothesis ASSUMES that early nucleic acids “assembled themselves” into functional proteins and RNA which then “assembled themselves” (a further assumption) into higher order functional strands of genetic material. This suggests enzymatic reactions already occurring. This newer suggestion is that Iron-Sulphur clusters (a basic component of all enzymes) have been around at least since the “last common ancestor of all living things” (an additional assumption). YET we know that all the many “carefully calibrated” metabolic reactions INSIDE living cells require oxygen which all modern scientists appear to agree was NOT PRESENT in this early earth!?!
So which came first, the enzymes (usually formed by coding in already extant RNA or DNA) or the cellular environment in which we can actually observe them arising in? Do we rely on and hypothesize based on the actual evidence, or the interpret the evidence to fit the model we suppose?
Well on the side of intelligent design playing a major role in all science, in laboratories Scientists have devised a way to remove oxygen, and then in this oxygen depleted environment mix Iron with glutathione (a sulfur containing peptide ) they claim was likely a predominate factor in the early earth (sound like a similar approach to the Miller/Urey intelligently designed model).
Only that makes little or no sense, because as we know, these already extant peptides would have required some catalytic or enzymatic action just to have formed in the first place. So to ASSUME such reactions already existed as the cause of forming such reactions in the first place is a logical absurdity, but the hypothesis driven are missing this in their thinking. So far replies I receive boil down to “
Duh! I cannot understand what you are saying here!”
It is like some kind of cog is stuck not allowing them to process the simple reasonable fact of what this proposes. All they really did in these experiments was show that under intelligently designed conditions in a controlled environment they could produce a form of Iron that could readily interact with sulfur (the sulfur which is bound in already formed peptides).
Out of 30 different compounds they created for trial, a few were found to actually somewhat work if placed INSIDE our intelligently designed fatty acid vesicles (we refer to as proto-cells and use them in labs), SO now this proposes a new problem being ignored or not admitted to, which is that fatty acids contain a carboxylic acid which itself is oxygen dependent to exist.
They seem to agree that also “
all the basic chemicals for life (meaning for their structures and functions)
can be cooked up in a water –filled impact crater” but AGAIN a “water-filled” crater demonstrates the necessity of oxygen, since oxygen is essential for water to exist and the environment they ASSUME allegedly has none, and if it were as they project in their initial assumptions, in the presence of such high levels of Ultra-violet radiation, water would be almost immediately evaporate were it even able to form in the first place.
Despite these obvious realities, I predict within a year or so many will be persuaded there is some actual truth to this, and after a while it will find its place beside other intelligently designed processes (like Miller/Urey) in classrooms and textbooks everywhere as evidence for an evolutionary source for life.
