In efforts done by origins of life studies, the simplest protocell that could be the source of living cells as we know it should contain DNA (or RNA), proteins & enzymes, all enclosed in a membrane. As simple as it may seem, this system, however, includes an advanced communication system. In the previous article, Origin of Life: Irreducible Complexity within the Cell we discussed the chicken-egg problem in that protocell. Now we will discuss the information evolution problem within this protocell, and generally in life as we know it.  Information  As per Webster’s dictionary: information is “the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence.”  In any communication system we find the core components: sender, receiver, communication medium, and the message or information to be communicated. Information is something imposed over the medium. It’s using the medium but it’s not the medium.   Example: someone sent a message through morse…

Introduction  According to Abiogenesis, it is assumed that the first life form was a simple cellular organism, which can evolve by itself during the prebiotic era, and then as time goes by, this simple cell starts to get more functions, being more complex, and forming more complex life forms.   As we are discussing the origin of life, we should be more concerned about that assumed simple cell: how simple the cell could be? And what is the minimum abstraction that can be assumed for a cell to be alive? That is, what are the minimum required biological components to have a living organism?  Basic components  As described by Dr. Nita Sahai about The Origins of life (reference 1), the minimum basic components of Extant Life are:  Heritable, Mutable Genes (i.e. DNA)  Metabolic Cycles (i.e. Proteins and enzymes)  Boundary Membrane (i.e. lipids)  However, the relationships between DNA, proteins, enzymes,…

Were scientists able to “create” life?   In May 2010, a team of scientists led by Dr J. Craig Venter became the first to successfully create what was described as "synthetic life".   Dr. Venter is an American biotechnologist and businessman, known for many remarkable contributions in the field of genetics.  The experiment to create life was done by synthesizing a very long DNA molecule containing an entire bacterium genome, and introducing this into another cell. The single-celled organism contains four "watermarks" written into its DNA to identify it as synthetic and to help trace its descendants. The watermarks include  Code table for the entire alphabet with punctuations  Names of 46 contributing scientists  Three quotations  The secret email address for the cell  The synthetic life project went through multiple phases  First, the team edited an existing DNA and inserted it into another living bacterial cell  In 2010, they created &…

Introduction:  Has Darwinian evolution explained how life came into existence? Were scientists able to create a synthetic form of life from non-living things, like simple bacteria for example? Were scientists able to create DNA or RNA? Were scientists able to create required organic molecules in replicating the prebiotic earth conditions? Was science able to explain the origin of life? Was it formed in primordial soup, in mud, in hydrothermal vents or was it formed somewhere else in outer space and landed on earth?  One may think that science has already answered all these questions, or almost about to answer them all. The truth is that despite all scientific efforts on studying the origin of life for more than 70 years, nothing remarkable was achieved. All findings are still just hypotheses, and due to new scientific discoveries over these years, the knowledge gap increased, making it more difficult to…