A Critique of Current Theories
of the Origin of Life
Walter L. Bradley, Ph.D., P.E.
Distinguished Professor of
Engineering
Baylor University
Context for this talk

Faith and Science
– Does nature of nature point to existence of
God? Does science support deism/theism
or atheism?
– Can one reconcile science and the Bible?
Context for this talk
Origin of universe
 Origin of life
 Origin of great diversity of life
 Origin of homo sapiens (humans)
 Origin of human consciousness

Overview of Presentation
 What
needs to be explained to
account for the origin of life?
 What can be explained scientifically
with our current level of
understanding?
 Is it reasonable to posit a
supernatural explanation for the
origin of life?
What distinguishes living from
non-living systems?
All living systems……………….
Process energy
Store information
Replicate
How are these functions performed
in living systems?

Molecular machinery in form of polymer
chains
– DNA
– RNA
– Protein

The polymers of life
What do these molecules, or
biopolymers look like?
Mer = molecule
 Poly = many
 Polymer = many molecules joined in a
chain like arrangement
 “Chain links” may be
– All the same (e.g., polyethylene or
PVC) as in garden variety plastics
– Many different links (e.g., 20 different
links called amino acids) as in protein

How do living systems process energy,
store information, and replicate?
Long chain molecules called polymers
perform these functions
DNA – information storage, template for
manufacture of biopolymers like protein
tRNA – intermediate in production of
protein and other biopolymers by DNA
Proteins –
--Catalysts that accelerate reaction rates
--Assists DNA in replication of itself
--Provide structural functions
How do proteins catalyze
chemical reactions in nature?
Chain folds up into a three-dimensional
shape which has a hand-in-glove fit for
two molecules to be catalyzed.
 Two molecules attach themselves to
catalyst and are held in close proximity.
 Slow, improbably chemical reaction is
now greatly accelerated by 10 million
times.

Steps in the origin of life





Must make the different mers under abiotic
atmospheric conditions.
Must assemble mers into polymers.
Must exclude other mers from joining into the
polymer as it forms.
Must have assembly be with right
connections and right sequencing.
DNA and proteins must be collected, isolated
and protected by a semi-permeable
membrane
Possible pathway for Origin of Life
What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
were the first protein, DNA,
and RNA molecules formed?
 Note DNA replication requires
protein and protein production
requires DNA.
 This is molecular version of
chicken/egg dilemma; which came
first if each requires the other.
What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
are mers (building blocks)
made?
 How are mers assembled?
 How can the incorporation of
inappropriate “other mers” into the
polymer be avoided?
 How are mers sequenced?
 How are parts assembled in
membrane?
What can be explained scientifically
about making building blocks?
 Miller-Urey’ atmosphere:
1952
methane
hydrogen → amino acids
ammonia
 1980’s atmosphere
water vapor
carbon dioxide gas
nitrogen gas
Alternative sources of amino acids
They came from outer space on
meteorites
 They were formed in suitable (reducing)
atmospheres elsewhere in universe

What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
are mers (building blocks)
made?
 How are mers assembled?
 How can the incorporation of
inappropriate “other mers” into the
polymer be avoided?
 How are mers sequenced?
 How are parts assembled in
membrane?
Five Amino Acids
Left and Right Handed Amino Acids
Condensation Polymerization—
joining mers into a chain
Chain of Amino Acids Folded
into a Protein
Illustration of biopolymer
information problem
What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
are mers (building blocks)
made?
 How are mers assembled?
 How can the incorporation of
inappropriate “other mers” into the
polymer be avoided?
 How are mers sequenced?
 How are parts assembled in
membrane?
The Problem of Cross Chemical
Reactions in Origin of Life
What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
are mers (building blocks)
made?
 How are mers assembled?
 How can the incorporation of
inappropriate “other mers” into the
polymer be avoided?
 How are mers sequenced?
 How are parts assembled in
membrane?
What cannot be explained scientifically
about sequencing of building blocks?

Sequencing of mers or building blocks
is the most difficult question, but it is
crucial to get function.
– Sequencing of amino acids essential in
protein.
– Sequencing of bases is crucial in DNA.

Sequence is analogous to biological
“information”.
Additional Experimental Evidence for Improbability of
Functional Polypeptides (proteins)
Two recent experimental studies on
other proteins have found the same
incredibly low probabilities for accidental
formation of a functional protein that
Yockey found
 1 in 1075 (Strait and Dewey, 1996) and
 1 in 1065 (Bowie, Reidhaar-Olson, Lim
and Sauer, 1990).
How many proteins are needed?

Approximately 250 -- 380
What needs to be explained to
account for origin of life?
 How
are mers (building blocks)
made?
 How are mers assembled?
 How can the incorporation of
inappropriate “other mers” into the
polymer be avoided?
 How are mers sequenced?
 How are parts assembled in
membrane?
How accurately do the textbooks
communicate our current understanding?
Making building blocks – Miller/Urey;
presented by everyone, some admit
atmosphere used (ammonia, methane,
hydrogen, and carbon dioxide) was
incorrect. Almost no one admits
production of building blocks with only
nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide.
 Assembly problems– textbooks seldom
mention
 Sequencing/information never
mentioned by textbooks

The Enigma of the Origin of Life
“The largest stumbling block in bridging the gap
between nonliving and living still remains. All
living cells are controlled by information stored in
DNA, which is transcribed in RNA and them
made into protein. This is a very complicated
system, and each of these three molecules
requires the other two--either to put it together or
to help it work. DNA, for example, carries
information but cannot put that information to
use, or even copy itself without the help of RNA
and protein.”
Kenneth R. Miller and Joseph Levine, Biology:
The Living Science (Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall), 1998, p.406-407.
What other say about the origin
of life?
“ A profound difficulty exists, however, with the
idea of RNA, or any other replicator, at the
start of life. Existing replicators can serve as
templates for the synthesis of additional
copies of themselves, but this device cannot
be used for the preparation of the very first
such molecule, which must arise
spontaneously from an unorganized mixture.
The formation of an information-bearing
homopolymer through undirected chemical
synthesis appears very improbable.”
Robert Shapiro, Prof. Of Biochemistry NYU
What others say about the origin
of life?

“The chemistry of the first life is a nightmare
to explain. No one has yet developed a
plausible explanation to show how the
earliest chemicals of life—thought to be
RNA—might have constructed themselves
from the inorganic chemicals likely to have
been around on early earth. The spontaneous
assembly of a small RNA molecule on the
primitive earth ‘would have been a near
miracle’ two experts in the subject (Joyce and
Orgel) helpfully declared last year.”
Nicholas Wade
National Academy: progress and
propaganda
1990 publication entitled The Search for
Life’s Origins” – very candid about
problems in explaining how life began.
 Science and Creationism: A View from
the National Academy of Sciences
(1999) minimizes what we cannot
explain, leaving impression no serious
problems remain to be solved.

Summary
Making building blocks with actual
atmosphere is challenging (Miller-Urey
experiments don’t count).
 Assembly is problematic, especially the
problem or cross reactions with other
reactants in prebiotic soup.
 Information content of DNA and protein
is so huge as to make explanation of
origin of life seemingly impossible.

Information Theory and 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics--highlights
Living versus Non-living Systems
While nonliving systems dutifully obey the
second law of thermodynamics, living
systems seem to live in defiance of it. In
fact, this is one of the simplest ways of
distinguishing living from nonliving
systems.
 Molton (1978, p. 147) defines life as
“regions of order that use energy to
maintain their organization against the
disruptive force of entropy.”

But how is this possible?
Living systems are characterized by
highly ordered, aperiodic structures that
survive by continually drawing
“negentropy” from their environment
and “feeding” on it.
E. Schroedinger
What then is Life?
The characteristic feature of life appears
to be it’s capacity through the use of
information to survive in a nonequilibrium state, resisting the pull
toward equilibrium that is described by
the second law of thermodynamics.
Improved Complex Specified Information
Calculation for Cytochrome c
Repeat calculation assuming a prebiotic
soup with 39 amino acids, 19 with a lefthanded and 19 with a right-handed
structures, assumed to be of equal
concentration, and glysine, which is
symmetric.
 W1 is calculated to be 4.26 x 1062
 Wo/W1 = 1.85 x 10137 / 4.26 x 1062
= 4.35 x 1074
 ICSI = log2 (4.35 x 1074) = 248 bits

DNA Information When Bases Are Not
Equally Probable

Consider Micrococcus lysodeikticus. The probabilities for the various
nucleotide bases are no longer equal: p(C) = p(G) = 0.355 and p(T) = p(A)
= 0.145, with the sum of the four probabilities adding to 1.0, as they must.

We may calculate the information “i” per nucleotide using
i = - ∑ pi log2 pi
= - (0.355 log2 0.355 + 0.355 log2 0.355 + 0.145 log2 0.145 +
0.145 log2 0.145)
= 1.87 bits / symbol

Comparing these results for unequally probable symbols to the results for
equally probable symbols with 2.0 bits/symbol illustrates a general point;
namely, that the greatest information is carried when the symbols are
equally probable. If symbols are not equally probably, then the information
per symbol is reduced accordingly.
Conclusion
It takes a great deal of faith to be an
atheist in today’s world.
 The origin of life as well as big bang
cosmology and the nature of nature
clearly suggest a creator who carefully
crafted the universe and life for our
benefit.

Overview or presentation






A brief introduction to Shannon information
theory
Quantify the information in biopolymers,
especially DNA, RNA, and protein
Explore the concept of entropy and its ubiquitous
increase in nature, usually called the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
Understand how living systems are able to
sustain themselves against the downward pull of
the second law of thermodynamics
Consider how thermodynamics affects the origin
of information-rich, living systems.
Explore various natural causes that have been
proposed to account for the origin of informationrich, living systems.
Quantifying Information in DNA for
Equally Probable Bases

DNA molecule has four bases called nucleotides that effectively
serve as an alphabet of four letters: A-adenine, T-thymine, Ccytosine, and G-guanine.

In E-coli bacteria, these bases appear equally often, such that
pi = ¼ for each one.

One we may calculate the information per nucleotide to be
i = - log2 ( ¼ ) = 2 bits


Since there are 4x106 nucleotides in the DNA of E.coli bacteria
(Gatlin, 1972, p.34), the total amount of Shannon information
would be
Is = N • i = 4 x 106 x 2 = 8 x 106 bits of information
Protein Molecule Consisting of ~100
Amino Acids
Five of Twenty Amino Acids found
in Living Systems
Understanding the subtleties of
Shannon Information

Shannon information is only syntactic, or structural. Two sequences of English
letters can have identical Shannon information “N • i,” with one being a beautiful
poem by Donne and the other being gibberish.
 Shannon information is a measure of one’s freedom of choice when one selects a
message, measured as the log2 (number of choices).
 Shannon and Weaver (1964, p27) note, “The concept of information developed in
this theory at first seems disappointing and bizarre – disappointing because it has
nothing to do with meaning (or function in biological systems) and bizarre because it
deals not with a single message but with a statistical ensemble of messages, bizarre
also because in these statistical terms, the two words information and uncertainty
find themselves as partners.”
 Gatlin (1972, p.25) notes that Shannon information may be thought of as a measure
of information capacity in a given sequence of symbols.
 Brillouin (1956, p. 1) describes Shannon information as a measure of the effort to
specify a particular message or sequence, with greater uncertainty requiring greater
effort.
 If one is interested in messages with meaning, in our case biological function, then
the Shannon information does not capture the story of interest very well.
Complex Specified Information

Leslie Orgel (1973)
– Specifying a crystal
– Specifying DNA

Brillouin quantifies complex specified
information, ICSI, using Shannon
information
ICSI = log2 (Wo / W1)
Wo = total number of unique sequences
Wi = total number of functional sequences
Complex Specified Information
cyctochrome-c

Some amino acid residues allow several
different amino acids to be used
interchangeably, reducing i from 4.32 to 2.82
and I (i x 110) from 475 to 310 (Yockey)

M = 2310 = 2.1 x 1093 = W1

Wo / W1 = 1.85 x 10137 / 2.1 x 1093
= 8.8 x 1044
I
L- and D-Amino Acids
(left and right handed)
Improved Complex Specified Information
Calculation for Cytochrome c
Repeat calculation assuming a prebiotic
soup with 39 amino acids, 19 with a lefthanded and 19 with a right-handed
structures, assumed to be of equal
concentration, and glysine, which is
symmetric.
 W1 is calculated to be 4.26 x 1062
 Wo/W1 = 1.85 x 10137 / 4.26 x 1062
= 4.35 x 1074
 ICSI = log2 (4.35 x 1074) = 248 bits

Summary of Information Theory and
Living Systems
The characteristic feature of living
systems is their high information
content, as seen in molecules such as
DNA and protein.
 The origin of such information is the
central enigma of the origin of such
living systems.

Overview or presentation






A brief introduction to Shannon information
theory
Quantify the information in biopolymers,
especially DNA, RNA, and protein
Explore the concept of entropy and its ubiquitous
increase in nature, usually called the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
Understand how living systems are able to
sustain themselves against the downward pull of
the second law of thermodynamics
Consider how thermodynamics affects the origin
of information-rich, living systems.
Explore various natural causes that have been
proposed to account for the origin of informationrich, living systems.
What is entropy macroscopically?

ΔS = ΔQ/T
– ΔS = change in system entropy
– ΔQ = thermal energy flow into or out of system
– T = temperature in degrees absolute

Entropy of universe always increases.
 Practical implication
– Heat flows out of your house in the winter
– Heat flows into your house in the summer

In general universe is moving toward a state of
uniform energy distribution that is more probable.
 non-uniform = probable; uniform = probable
 Dye in a glass of water; movies run backwards
What is entropy microscopically?

S = k log℮ Ω
– k = Boltzmann’s constant
– Ω= number of ways system can be arranged
Ω = N! / (a!b!c!......)
 loge Ω = -∑pi loge pi
 Mathematically very similar to Shannon
information
 Some argue that as entropy increases naturally,
so does information but

– No physical connection between Is and S
– Icsi is what determines life function, not Is

Universe is moving from less probable to more
probable state, from improbable to probable.
Overview or presentation






A brief introduction to Shannon information
theory
Quantify the information in biopolymers,
especially DNA, RNA, and protein
Explore the concept of entropy and its ubiquitous
increase in nature, usually called the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
Understand how living systems are able to
sustain themselves against the downward pull of
the second law of thermodynamics
Consider how thermodynamics affects the origin
of information-rich, living systems.
Explore various natural causes that have been
proposed to account for the origin of informationrich, living systems.
How do living systems “levitate” above
thermodynamic equilibrium and death?


6CO2 + 6H2O + radiant energy → 6C6H12O6 + 6O2
Animals consume plant biomass and use this energy
rich material to maintain themselves against the
downward pull of the 2nd law. The total entropy
change that takes place in an open system such as a
living cell must be consistent with the second law of
thermodynamics and can be described as follows:

∆Scell + ∆Ssurroundings > 0
 The molecular “machinery” to process energy (solar or
biomass) is crucial to living systems sustaining
themselves above thermodynamic equilibrium and
death. Complex, specified information is essential.
Overview or presentation






A brief introduction to Shannon information
theory
Quantify the information in biopolymers,
especially DNA, RNA, and protein
Explore the concept of entropy and its ubiquitous
increase in nature, usually called the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
Understand how living systems are able to
sustain themselves against the downward pull of
the second law of thermodynamics
Consider how thermodynamics affects the origin
of information-rich, living systems.
Explore various natural causes that have been
proposed to account for the origin of informationrich, living systems.
Proposed Models for Origin of Life





Chance Models and Jacques Monod
(1972).
Replicator First Models and Manfred Eigen
(1992)
Metabolism First Models of Wicken (1987),
Fox (1984) and Dyson (1999)
Self Organization in Systems Far From
Equilibrium – Prigogine (1984)
Complexity and the Work of Kauffman and
the Sante Fe Institute (2000)
Summary
Biological life requires a system of
biopolymers of sufficient specified
complexity to store information, replicate
with very occasional mistakes, and utilize
energy flow to maintain the levitation of life
above thermodynamic equilibrium and
physical death.
 The informational requirements for such
polymers are enormous and the origin of
this information remains the central
enigma of the origin of life.

The Enigma of the Origin of Life
“The chemistry of the first life is a nightmare to
explain. No one has yet developed a plausible
explanation to show how the earliest chemicals
of life - thought to be RNA, or ribonucleic acid, a
close relative of DNA, might have constructed
themselves from the inorganic chemicals likely
to have been around on the early earth. The
spontaneous assembly of a small RNA molecule
on the primitive earth ‘would have been a near
miracle’ two experts in the subject helpfully
declared last year.”
Nicholas Wade, New York Times (6/13/2000)
God’s Work in Creation
Bara – create – implies miracle (God
working in some extraordinary way)
 Asah – make – implies process (God
working in His customary way)
 The origin of life may be an example of
God “bara-ing” rather than “asah-ing”.
 Work in the origin of life in the last 50
years has only served to enlarge our
understanding of the problem and to see
the problem become increasingly
challenging.
