Primordial Soup as a Wizard's Potion
November 17, 2014
Certain concepts in materialistic origin of life seem to have more to do with witchcraft than reputable science.
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Left-Handed Life: Is the Chirality Problem Near Solution?
October 2, 2014
Cells use only left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars. A new hypothesis involving the weak nuclear force tries to address this asymmetry.
You Are Not a Martian
August 28, 2013
Every once in awhile, someone "suggests" that life began on Mars, not Earth. Here it comes again from someone who knows better.
Astrobiology: The Science of Could
July 1, 2013
Anything "could" happen. Shouldn't science deal with what does happen and what did happen? The "could" word is rampant in astrobiology literature and origin-of-life studies.
OOLishness: The Imaginary World of Origin-of-Life Studies
March 20, 2013
Why aren't philosophers of science shaming origin-of-life researchers out of the science department? OOL theories depend on imagination, not empirical evidence, for their broad-brush conclusions.
Evolution as Lottery Manipulator
June 22, 2012
Lady Luck is often clearly the stated referee of evolutionary events, but the vast number of times evolution wins suggests design afoot.
Crystal Mysticism Invades Astrobiology
March 20, 2009
Mystical ideas about the life-giving power of crystals usually go with New Age movies and storefronts. Science is above all that, right? Then what is a reader supposed to think of this opening line by Leslie Mullen on Space.com? One of the greatest mysteries about the origin of life is how the necessary ingredients consistently […]
Leslie Orgel’s Last Testament: Pigs Don’t Fly, and Life Doesn’t Just Happen
January 26, 2008
Leslie Orgel's last written article before his death shows no patience for hypothetical scenarios for the origin of life.
OOL on the Rocks
February 15, 2007
Robert Shapiro demolishes the RNA World just in time for Leslie Orgel to demolish Shapiro's own myth. Ashes, ashes; they all fall down.
Astrobiology: Follow the Money
January 7, 2005
To date, astrobiology remains, as George Gaylord Simpson once quipped, “an area of study without a known subject.” Yet it is one of the hottest research areas within NASA. A renowned origin-of-life researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. Jeffrey Bada, found out why when he read the new book The Living Universe: NASA and […]
Origin-of-Life Expert Jokes about Becoming a Creationist
November 5, 2004
Chemist admits problems in chemical evolution are so hard, he is tempted to become a creationist.
Pop Goes the Fatbubble Theory for the Origin of Life
September 3, 2004
This weird theory pops faster than the bubbles it describes as our ancestors.