Why Can't Scientists Create Life from Non-Life? Part 1

Evitar asks: "Hello. As far as I know, scientists have not yet succeeded in creating life from non-living matter, but I would like to understand why, because life is made of various chemicals. So isn't it enough to mix these chemicals together to create something alive?"

Hello Evitar, and thank you for your question,

We are all composed of tiny cells that are connected to one another and operate simultaneously. If we illustrate a living cell as a country, then the human body is essentially a whole world, composed of billions of tiny countries, each containing a full industry of factories, vehicles, computers, and more, all operating entirely automatically, like a machine. The complexity found in even the smallest living cell in our bodies is greater than all the plumbing of New York City.

But in the past, scientists weren't aware of this. Anton van Leeuwenhoek was the first researcher to observe, with a simple microscope, blood, insects, and other objects, describing cells and bacteria for the first time in 1675. Even a hundred years later, cells still seemed to scientists like small bubbles that divided and multiplied, as they had yet to discover genes. The structure of DNA was first revealed in 1953 by researchers James Watson and Francis Crick. To understand the magnitude of their discovery, I will explain some basic concepts.

A gene is an information code (like a line in a computer program) that shows the "manufacturing instructions" for proteins, from which all our body cells are made. All the genes in the human body are compressed together in a giant molecule called DNA, which contains about 3 billion nucleotides (which form the letters in the software).

How does DNA become the human body? Inside the cell nucleus are special chemicals that copy short segments of the DNA, each time a short strand. These short strands are called RNA. RNA strands reach a machine within the cell called the "ribosome," which reads it and produces proteins from amino acids in its environment. This is how all our body cells are formed.

The living cell is a supercomputer, or more precisely, a whole factory operating through a supercomputer. Due to the incredible complexity found within the cell, scientists have not succeeded in creating a living cell from non-life.

However, the answer to your question is simpler.

It turns out that even in the simplest organism, several complex processes must function simultaneously for it to live and exist. Functions such as eating, breathing, digestion, and reproduction are carried out by complex machines within the living cell, similar to different parts in a car or computer, where the absence of just one part means the machine cannot operate. And these are:

1. The ability to eat - intake and retention of food. Imagine the living cell like a fortress with doors, where guards allow the entry of suitable food while preventing harmful substances from entering.

2. The ability to digest - transforming food into energy the living cell can use. This machine is called a "lysosome."

3. The ability to excrete digested food - this feature requires the passage of new food and the passage of digested food. Imagine a factory with different departments and passages for waste and toxins.

4. The ability to breathe and expel used oxygen - this machine is called a "mitochondrion."

5. Decomposing toxic substances entering the cell (like hydrogen peroxide). "Peroxisome" and also "lysosome" handle this in the living cell.

6. A liquid substance that holds and connects all the components of the cell, allowing the dissolution of proteins (i.e., enzymes that perform essential functions within the cell). This fluid is called "cytoplasm," and it makes up 80% of water. It is the "blood" of the cell and enables the movement of its organs and all complex operations performed in the cell.

7. A skeleton that divides the cell - the cell's skeleton is essentially a system of layers made of fibers and threads that divide all the cell's components and hold them together (allowing movement within them as well). Imagine a fortress built with walls, containing halls, corridors, and complex rooms that must be separated from each other for the different guards, ministers, and workers.

8. An outer covering that protects the cell from the outside - the "membrane" is the name of the membranous envelope that protects the cell from the outside and filters out undesirable substances. Without the membrane, oxygen would destroy all the cell components. The cell's membrane also holds the cytoplasm, adjusting and transferring water, oxygen, and other materials from the outside into the cytoplasm.

9. The DNA - this closed library contains all the information for creating the cell. There is a "nucleus" in every cell that contains a DNA molecule, where all the traits that make up the cell are coded in letters (like a "manual" for cell replication).

10. The ability to reproduce - inside every living cell is an "internal computer" capable of deciphering the DNA molecule to read it, and there are additional molecules that execute the commands required by the "internal computer" to replicate the cell. This machine is called RNA.

Even the simplest cell needs all the characteristics mentioned above to survive and replicate itself. The absence of one of these characteristics means death for the cell and immediate extinction. But in reality, each of these characteristics is composed of countless other components still being studied by biologists.

For this reason, life can never generate from itself.

In this context, it is worth mentioning that the media once presented a famous experiment called the "Miller-Urey experiment" in a misleading way to the public, as if science had made a giant leap towards creating life from non-living matter. But the truth is that scientists have not created a living cell from non-life, not even anything close to creating a living cell. If we were to liken the living cell to a car, the "Miller-Urey experiment" succeeded only in producing fuel for the car but had not even come close to producing an actual car, not even a very simple one.

Prof. Robert Shapiro, a DNA expert, said: "The best chemistry shown by Miller and Urey does not take us even slightly closer to a living organism. A mix of chemicals, even if enriched with a number of amino acids, no more resembles a bacterium than a jumble of meaningless words on scraps of paper is comparable to a complete work of Shakespeare" -

[Robert Shapiro, "Origins - A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth," 1986, p. 116]

As incredibly complex machines must operate simultaneously, there is no natural way for life to generate from non-living matter. In the next article, with Hashem's help, we will continue exploring the complexity of life and learn what it can teach us about the existence of a Creator.