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Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana in this breaking News of the Day episode of Stars, Cells, and God. Fuz offers a critical assessment of a recent article addressing the origin-of-life topic.

 

Do Cracks in Rocks Explain Life’s Origin?

A team of German researchers recently published results of a prebiotic simulation study in which they claim that thermal gradients could drive the generation of biopolymers (chains of molecules) on early Earth. These thermal gradients would have created convection currents in water-infused cracks in rocks and the convection currents would have, in turn, purified and concentrated prebiotic materials, facilitating the production of biopolymers. The researchers claim that this work provides key insight into a chemical evolutionary origin of life and solves the problem of unwarranted researcher involvement. In fact, these claims inspired a piece by Carolyn Y. Johnson in The Washington Post.

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana describes this work and its significance to the origin-of-life problem. He also offers a critical assessment of the study, demonstrating how this work, along with previous studies in prebiotic chemistry, evince a Creator’s necessary role in the origin of life.

Links and Resources:

• How Did Life on Earth Begin? Cracks May Have Been the Key
• Heat Flows Enrich Prebiotic Building Blocks and Enhance Their Reactivity
• Prebiotic Chemistry and the Hand of God