II Peter 3:3-5
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in
the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that
by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth standing out of the water
and in the water:
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Chemical Evolution
Timothy G. Standish, Ph. D.
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
The Likely and the Unlikely
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Science is about predicting what is likely and what is
unlikely. Everyone is in agreement that the events leading
to production of living organisms are unlikely.
It has been argued that given massive lengths of time and a
universe to work in, the unlikely becomes likely:
Given infinite time, or infinite opportunities, anything is
possible. The large numbers proverbially furnished by
astronomy, and the large time spans characteristic of
geology, combine to turn topsy-turvy our everyday
estimates of what is expected and what is miraculous.
Richard Dawkins (1989) The Blind Watchmaker: Why the
evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design.
W. W. Norton and Co. New York. p139.
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Four Postulated Stages
of Chemical Evolution
 Chemical
evolution is the spontaneous
production of the molecular components of
cells that had to be produced prior to
evolution of the first cell:
1) Abiotic synthesis of organic monomers
2) Abiotic synthesis of organic polymers
3) Self assembly of protobionts
4) Evolution of a genetic system
 We will concentrate on the first two steps
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Step 1: Abiotic Synthesis
of Organic Monomers
The monomers that make up polymers in living
cells are reduced carbon compounds
 Can’t happen in modern world due to oxidizing
atmosphere
 1920s A. I. Oparin (Russia) and J. B. S. Haldane
(Great Britain) postulated that as spontaneous
synthesis of reduced organic molecules is
impossible in an oxidizing environment, the earth
must have had a reducing atmosphere
 1953 Miller and Urey designed a device to test the
hypothesis that given the right conditions, organic
monomers could be produced

©2001 Timothy G. Standish
The Miller-Urey Device
NH3 H
2
CH4
H2O
Sample
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Products of
Miller and Urey’s Device
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After several days of operation, the Miller-Urey device
produced a brown organic substance in which, either in
this experiment or subsequent variations, was found many
of the basic building blocks of:
–
–
–
–
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Proteins (amino acids)
Nucleic acids (ribose, purines and pyrimidines)
Polysaccharides (sugars)
Fats (fatty acids and glycerol)
Note that it was the building blocks that were found, not
the actual macromolecules
Along with these building blocks, there were many other
molecules not found in organisms
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Did Miller and Urey Prove
Chemical Evolution?
Six reasons that it does not prove chemical evolution:
 Oparin’s reducing conditions were postulated because they are
conditions allowing reduced organic molecule production, not because
of compelling evidence these conditions ever existed on earth.
 Reduced organic products were not the result of random chance, but
of a device that had been carefully designed and constructed.
 Products were not enriched in the chemicals that make up organisms.
This is a particular problem when it comes to stereoisomers.
 No organisms were actually made.
 Even if organisms were made in this way, this would not prove it to be
how things actually happened, it only shows it to be one possible way.
 Accumulation of organic monomers is only the first step in chemical
evolution.
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Step 2: Abiotic Synthesis
of Organic Polymers
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It has been postulated that the monomer building blocks
produced under conditions resembling those in the MillerUrey experiment were joined together to make polymers
Experiments have been done that demonstrate this is
possible in the absence of living cells or cell products like
enzymes
The sequence in which monomers are joined together to
make polymers is vital to the function of polymers like
DNA and proteins.
No mechanism has been proposed for joining monomers in
meaningful sequences, thus abiotically synthesized organic
polymers are assumed to have been random in sequence.
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
A Polymerization Experiment
Imai et al, 1999 Science 283:831-833
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Imai et al’s device “simulated the pressure and temperature
conditions of the hydrothermal circulation of water”
“However, there were still some large differences [from real
hydrothermal vents], for instance, in pH, CO2, Na and Cl
contents.”
100 mM glycine in pure water was circulated in the system
alternating temperature and pressure with each circuit
2 mM diketopiperazine, 1mM triglycine and 0.4 mM
diglycine resulted once close to steady state condtions were
reached
In the presence of Cu++ and low pH, small 0.001 mM
concentrations of up to hexaglycine were produced
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Imai et al’s Device
Heating
Cooling
Depressurization
Pressurization
Sample
removal
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Random Sequences are Unlikely
to be Meaningful or Useful
 Random
sequences of amino acids are
analogous to random sequences of letters:
– ldjfire vireahdftrfd
– grvcnlkertpoildrirti
– ugcrtrrtadhk jjkvhvf
– jmvcbkvbkjhcguvdrttr
– k jfvukvfkhjfvkhj he
 Random
sequences are unlikely to be
meaningful
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
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Yes, It Is Unlikely . . . But
The argument is not that the origin of life was an unlikely
event, but that given sufficient time and resources chance
events could produce the first organism that could then be
acted on by the guiding hand of natural selection
So what are the resources available for the production of
the first/simplest organism? Is it really the universe?
“The Monera (for instance, chromacea and bacteria),
which consist only of this primitive protoplasm, and
which arise by spontaneous generation from these
inorganic nitrocarbonates, may thus have entered upon the
same course of evolution on many other planets . . .”
– Haeckel, Ernst. 1900. The Riddle of the Universe at the close of
the Nineteenth Century. Translated by Joseph McCabe. Harper
and Brothers Publishers, New York. Pg 369.
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Space and Time
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The conditions necessary to produce reduced carbon
compounds like those produced in the Miller-Urey
experiment have not, so far, been found elsewhere in the
universe
In reality, the conditions needed for life seem to only be
present in a tiny fraction of the universe and we happen to
be living on it.
Time is the other element needed, and this is a real
problem
Even if the conventional interpretation of the fossil record
is used, life seems to have appeared very soon (a few
million, not billions of years) after water appeared on earth
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Conventional History Of The Earth
0
1,000
Human fossils
Last dinosaur fossils
First reptile fossils
First land plant fossils
-First multicellular animal fossils
1,500
-First eukaryotic fossils
Cenozoic
Millions of Years BP
Mesozoic
500 Paleozoic
2,000 Precambrian
2,500
3,000
3,500
-Atmospheric Oxygen accumulation
(from cyanobacteria)
4,000
-First fossil prokaryotes
Origin of life
-Crust forms
4,500
-Formation of the earth
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Newer Ideas
Mars may have served as life’s incubator as it cooled
before earth and had a moist environment.
 Life, in the form of bacteria or bluegreen algae, was
transferred to earth when chunks of Mars knocked
off by collisions with comets etc. fell to earth.
 This general idea is not new. Francis Crick called it
“panspermia” in Life Itself where he says the earth
was seeded with life from space (Hoyle may also
have published something similar)
 None of this makes explanations simpler, just more
complex (should Ockham’s Razor be invoked?)

©2001 Timothy G. Standish
The Information Catch 22
With only poor copying fidelity, a primitive
system could carry little genetic information
without L [the mutation rate] becoming
unbearably large, and how a primitive system
could then improve its fidelity and also
evolve into a sexual system with crossover
beggars the imagination."
Hoyle F., "Mathematics of Evolution", [1987],
Acorn Enterprises: Memphis TN, 1999, p20
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Evolution . . . So 20th Century
"In the realm of science, scholars such as
William Dembski and Michael Behe have
been demonstrating how the order in the
universe is evidence that it has been
intelligently designed. 'No!' say the
Darwinists. 'Everything has to be random!'
But the evolutionists are the ones who sound
so outdated, so 20th century.”
Veith, Gene E. Reality makes a comeback. World
Magazine Feb. 12, 2000 Volume 15 Number 6
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
Faith In One Unverified Idea
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"But what if the vast majority of scientists all have faith in the one
unverified idea? The modern 'standard' scientific version of the origin
of life on earth is one such idea, and we would be wise to check its
real merit with great care. Has the cold blade of reason been applied
with sufficient vigour in this case? Most scientists want to believe that
life could have emerged spontaneously from the primeval waters,
because it would confirm their belief in the explicability of Nature the
belief that all could be explained in terms of particles and energy and
forces if only we had the time and the necessary intellect. They also
want to believe because their arch opponents - religious
fundamentalists such as creationists - do not believe in life's
spontaneous origin. It is this combative atmosphere which sometimes
encourages scientists writing and speaking about the origin of life to
become as dogmatic and bigoted as the creationist opponents they so
despise.”
Scott A., "The Creation of Life: Past, Future, Alien," Basil Blackwell:
Oxford UK, 1986, p.111-112
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
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The RNA World
"Once RNA is synthesized, it can make new copies of
itself only with a great deal of help from the scientist, says
Joyce of the Scripps Clinic, an RNA specialist. " It is an
inept molecule," he explains, "especially when compared
with proteins." Leslie E. Orgel of the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies, who has probably done more research
exploring the RNA-world scenario than any other
scientist, concurs with Joyce. Experiments simulating the
early stages of the RNA world are too complicated to
represent plausible scenarios for the origin of life, Orgel
says. "You have to get an awful lot of things right and
nothing wrong," he adds.”
Horgan J., "In The Beginning...," Scientific American,
February 1991, p.103. Elipses in original
©2001 Timothy G. Standish
©2001 Timothy G. Standish