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This series, produced by the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute, presents in a clever, humorous, substantive, and concise way the challenges intrinsic to naturalistic models of chemical evolution.
Challenge to Origin of Life: The Information Dilemma (Long Story Short)
Imagine you discovered a stone with ancient words carved into it! And they told a really good knock-knock joke. What an archaeological find! But to your surprise, scientists concluded that it came about through purely natural processes: “just physics and chemistry acting on an exposed rock.” What? You’d need very specific lines and shapes to form letters, and then those letters would need to be in very specific arrangements to even get a bad knock knock joke. “Well, if you leave rocks out in the wind and rain for long enough, you’re bound to get knock knock jokes eventually.” Nobody would buy that. But this is eerily similar to typical explanations for the origin of life, except life is no joke (pun intended), and there are many more layers of complexity that would have to come together to kickstart life.
Challenge to Origin of Life: Energy Harnessing (Long Story Short, Ep. 7)
Chemical evolution would have required a continuous supply of energy to create the first life. But are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic? In this episode of Long Story Short, explore some of the challenges chemical evolution would have faced in order to harness the energy needed to originate the first life. This is one of several episodes about the origin of life.
Challenge to Origin of Life: Cell Membranes (Long Story Short, Ep. 6)
Cells can't exist without membranes to protect them. So any explanation of the origin of life needs to explain the development of cell membranes. Some scientists claim cell membranes would have been easy to create through chemical evolution. But is this really true? In this episode of Long Story Short, dive into some of the obstacles chemical evolution would have to overcome in order to produce the first cell membranes.
Challenge to Origin of Life: Biopolymers (Long Story Short, Ep. 5)
We’re often told that origin of life experiments have simulated the production of life’s building blocks under conditions that mimicked the early earth. Or at least that’s what many textbooks say. But is this really true? This video deals with one particular challenge to evolving life from chemicals: forming biopolymers under natural conditions. Watch this video to appreciate how origin of life experiments don’t come anywhere close to accounting for the vast complexity of biology.
The Basic Building Blocks & the Origin of Life (Long Story Short, Ep. 4)
We’re often told that origin of life experiments have simulated the production of life’s building blocks under conditions that mimicked the early earth. Or at least that’s what many textbooks say. But is this really true? This video shows how origin of life researchers “cheat” by using purified chemicals that don’t reproduce actual natural conditions. Another dirty little secret is that prebiotic synthesis experiments often don’t report the bulk of the product: toxic garbage that destroys the building blocks’ ability to form more complex molecules. Watch this video to appreciate how origin of life experiments don’t come anywhere close to accounting for the vast complexity of biology.