chemical evolution

microscope with lab glassware, science laboratory research and development concept
microscope with lab glassware, science laboratory research and development concept

Roger Olsen on the Mystery of Life’s Origin on the Early Earth

On this episode of ID the Future, Robert Marks interviews Roger Olsen, co-author of the groundbreaking 1984 book The Mystery of Life’s Origin. In the book’s epilogue they suggested that a designing intelligence stands as the best explanation for the origin of life. And with a revised and greatly expanded new edition of the book now available, he says that 36 years of additional research from the origin-of-life community has left their conclusions stronger than ever. Now an environmental scientist, Olsen has spent his career since then helping homes and families abroad protect children from the ravages of environmental pollution.

Walter Bradley on the New Mystery of Life’s Origin, Pt. 2

On this episode of ID the Future, Robert Marks continues his conversation with Walter Bradley, co-author (with Charles Thaxton and Roger Olsen) of the groundbreaking 1984 work The Mystery of Life’s Origin. A revised and expanded edition of the book has just been released with new contributions from James Tour, Guillermo Gonzalez, Stephen Meyer, and others, but today Bradley and Marks discuss the book’s first release, including the cultural context that made finding a non-religious publisher an uphill battle, and discussion of some of the endorsements and early reviews, including one drive-by and four positive responses from distinguished scientists Robert Jastrow, Dean Kenyon, Robert Shapiro, and Fritz Schaefer. Bradley and Marks also discuss some scholars who more recently have testified Read More ›

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Work up of a reaction sketched on fume hood sash glass
Photo by Chromatograph on Unsplash

Chemist Marcos Eberlin on a Crisis for Chemical Evolution

On this episode of ID the Future, distinguished Brazilian organic chemist Marcos Eberlin talks about chemical evolution and the origin of life, pivoting off of comments by Rice University synthetic organic chemist James Tour in Science Uprising Episode 5, and off of Eberlin’s own Nobel laureate-endorsed book Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. The idea of an unguided origin of the first life has been “sold to us,” he says, but its assumptions are “insane … many, many times impossible.”

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Chemist Charles Garner on Chemical Evolution

On this ID the Future podcast, Chemistry Professor Charles Garner from Baylor University testifies before the Texas State Board of Education about the need to teach students about both the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolution. Dr. Garner specifically focuses on chemical evolution, emphasizing some of the scientific weaknesses in theories of a natural chemical origin of life, and encourages that evidence to be taught in Texas science classrooms.