Dean Kenyon

Dean H. Kenyon is Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University. He was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Biodynamics at the University of California at Berkeley, a Research Associate at NASA-Ames Research Center, and a Visiting Scholar at Trinity College, Oxford University.

Prof. Kenyon coauthored Biochemical Predestination which is one of the leading monographs on the origin of life, and Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins. He contributed chapters to the Festschrift volumes for origin-of-life researchers A. I. Oparin and Sidney W. Fox, and has published papers on chemical evolution, protocell models, and the RNA-world hypothesis.

Dr. Kenyon's current research interests focus on linguistic, statistical, and visual imaging analysis of coding and non-coding DNA sequences.

Archives

What Scientists Fear: Foreword to The Mystery of Life’s Origin

_{Dean H. Kenyon
March 23, 2020}

Perhaps scientists fear that acceptance of this conclusion would open the door to the possibility (or the necessity) of a supernatural origin of life.

The RNA World

_{A Critique}_{Dean Kenyon
January 1, 1996}

Introduction One of the earliest published suggestions that RNA-catalyzed RNA replication preceded and gave rise to the first DNA-based living cells was made by Carl Woese in 1967, in his book The Genetic Code1. Similar suggestions were made by Crick and Orgel2, for reasons that are not difficult to grasp. Prior to the discovery of catalytic RNAs, proteins were considered by many to be the only organic molecules in living matter that could function as catalysts. DNA carries the genetic information required for the synthesis of proteins. The replication and transcription of DNA require a complex set of enzymes and other proteins. How then could the first living cells with DNA-based molecular biology have originated by spontaneous chemical processes on the prebiotic Earth? Primordial …

Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins

_{Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon
September 1, 1993}

Of Pandas and People gives evidence for intelligent design from origin-of-life studies, biochemistry, genetics, homology, and paleontology. In a unique manner, Of Pandas and People gives the pros and cons of both the biological-evolution theory and the intelligent-design concept. Pandas promotes a widely recognized goal of science education by fostering a questioning, skeptical and scrutinizing mindset. This supplemental biology textbook provides an extensive index, glossary, references, and suggested reading and resources to help familiarize the reader with the material. Pandas is enhanced by the use of numerous diagrams, charts, illustrations and full-color pictures. …