TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Discovery of the rapid destruction of amino acids in astronomical environments continues to highlight problems in naturalistic models of life’s origin(s). The “follow-the-water” philosophy of many scientists assumes that any place where liquid water exists is a suitable habitat for life to form. Recent studies of the building blocks of biomolecules—amino acids—in ice environments show that even in the remote regions of the solar system, ultraviolet (UV) radiation dramatically diminishes the quantities of amino acids available for life chemistry. For instance, on Jupiter’s moon Europa (one proposed life site), UV radiation destroys half of even the most robust amino acids in the top meter of ice in less than 10 years. Such short timescales pose significant hurdles for naturalistic models of life’s origin but find an easy fit in a model like RTB’s, where a supernatural Creator introduces life in a properly prepared environment.
Grazyna E. Orzechowska et al., “Ultraviolet Photolysis of Amino Acids in a 100 K Water Ice Matrix: Application to the Outer Solar System Bodies,” Icarus 187 (2007): 584-91.
Stanley L. Miller's legendary spark-discharge experiments, conducted in the 1950s, were considered the first experimental validation of chemical evolutionary scenarios for the origin of...
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