2024/09/16

Scientists have not been able to create life from scratch

Creating a living being from scratch is extremely difficult


And it seems to be an impossible task for scientists



Excerpt: "Creating a living being from scratch is difficult. A cell is home to a complex system where every organelle must work together to sustain life. To engineer artificial life in a test tube, scientists will have to engineer lots of different functionalities together that might not exist in nature along with the ability for the cell to sustain basic life functions. “One of the most underlying and necessary reactions that have to occur would be to get from DNA to RNA to proteins,” says Yewdall. “In order to do this, you need a compatible system” — one where all the organelles and other cellular parts work together to sustain cellular function such as making proteins, energy, and transporting nutrients."

My comment: The article highlights the extreme complexity involved in creating life from scratch, particularly when attempting to engineer a functional cell in a laboratory setting. This complexity offers significant insights into why life could not arise through random mutations and natural selection alone, as evolutionary theory often suggests.

First, the text emphasizes how essential it is for all cellular components to work in harmony to sustain life. Every organelle, every protein, and every biochemical process must be highly coordinated. This intricate system is not merely a collection of individual parts randomly thrown together; it is a finely tuned network, where a failure in one part often results in the collapse of the entire system. This is consistent with the idea that life is designed and purposefully engineered, rather than the result of random processes.

One key point mentioned is the necessity of a "compatible system" where organelles and cellular machinery cooperate to perform life-sustaining functions. In the context of evolution, it is hard to imagine how such a system could gradually evolve since each part would need to be functional from the beginning for life to exist. The DNA-RNA-protein relationship — the central dogma of molecular biology — must already be fully operational for a cell to survive. Random mutations could not build up such an interdependent system incrementally because each step would require a fully functioning system to even begin working.


The difficulty scientists face in synthesizing life under controlled conditions further challenges the idea that life could arise spontaneously through undirected processes in nature. If highly educated and well-resourced researchers struggle to replicate life in ideal laboratory environments, it raises significant doubts about the likelihood of life emerging without intelligent direction. The step-by-step failure to produce life in the lab illustrates that far more than chance and time are needed to explain the origin of life.

Ultimately, these findings suggest that life’s complexity points to intentional design, not accidental formation. The orchestration of multiple biological systems working in perfect synchronization points to a creator who designed life with purpose, rather than it being the product of blind, random processes. The challenges scientists face in trying to create life emphasize the incredible sophistication inherent in even the simplest living cells, reinforcing the view that life is a product of intelligent creation rather than evolutionary happenstance.