The 'life in a test-tube' myth

Dr. Neville Thomas Jones, Ph.D.

Early in 2004 the British television station, Channel 5, ran a collection of popular science programmes under the title of, "The Big Question," the second of which was presented by the chemistry Nobel laureate, Professor Sir Harry Kroto, FRS.

During his presentation, Prof. Kroto made several references to an experiment carried out by the American scientist, Dr. Stanley L. Miller, in 1953. Prof. Kroto even returned several times to clips of one of his laboratory assistants standing beside a reconstruction of Dr. Miller's apparatus. The aim was to 'enlighten' the general public as to the 'creation' of some amino acids in a hypothetical, primitive-earth atmosphere.

Prof. Kroto's relaxed and lucid account was designed to show how our knowledge regarding the idea of organic evolution has been systematically extended backwards. No doubt the average viewer would have been fairly convinced by the presentation and any thoughts they might have had regarding creation would have been correspondingly eroded.

After a week-long, indirect battering by Prof. Hawking (physics), Prof. Kroto (chemistry), Prof. Dawkins (biology), et al., even the concept of God may have seemed defunct and irrelevant. However, modern science is very heavily biased and the series could just as appropriately have been labelled as "science fiction," for the line between science and science fiction is now very fine indeed.

There was something clearly visible in the reconstructed Miller apparatus, although very few people would have known what it was and even fewer would know the significance of it. However, Prof. Kroto, who one must assume was very well aware of its vital importance to the success of the experiment, made not even a passing reference to it.

Dr. Miller's apparatus has an energy source, which generates an electrical spark (to simulate lightning), and results in a 'product' being formed. The essential, though unmentioned, piece of equipment is what is termed a 'trap', and its purpose is to ensure that the product is immediately isolated from the energy source. The reason for this necessary isolation is that these few amino acids (the product) are destroyed by that energy source far more rapidly and efficiently than ever they are manufactured by it. Without the trap, there would be no product. This is therefore a manipulated, contrived experiment, of dubious value, the results of which do not correspond in any way with reality. Sir Harry Kroto must have been perfectly well aware of that, yet this aspect of his talk seemed conspicuously incomplete, almost to the point of being deliberately misleading.

There were other problems with Kroto's dialogue, for example he also failed to even mention that all geology-related data show that there never was an ammonia-rich, methane-rich, primitive-Earth atmosphere. That the components and concentration levels of the World's atmosphere have remained almost totally constant throughout geologic history. This means that the chemical composition of the gas-filled chamber through which Dr. Miller continually passed electrical discharges, was totally irrelevant.

Also, although Prof. Kroto never actually referred to Dr. Miller's results as being, 'life in a test-tube', as some newspapers wrote at the time, nevertheless he did not contradict it either; for a few amino acids cannot, under any stretch of the imagination, be thought of as life, in even its very "simplest" form (which is still phenomenally complicated).

Series such as this one by Channel 5 are always overtly one-sided and flamboyant, broadcasting to the masses the view of the Emperor's (somewhat dubious) tailor. Certainly the Rothschilds learnt long ago this persuasive power of the media, which is the reason why 96% of the World's media today is owned by and/or controlled by the main Zionist families.

References

Gish, D.T.,  1997, "The Origin of Life," 2nd ed., HarperCollins, New York.