To coincide with chemist James Tour’s highly anticipated debate with YouTuber Dave Farina, we pulled this gem out of the archive for your listening pleasure! On this episode of ID the Future, distinguished synthetic organic chemist Dr. James Tour of Rice University takes us back to the basics of origin of life studies. What is abiogenesis? How does it differ from evolution? How is life defined? What are the characteristics of life? What challenges do researchers face in trying to create life from non-life? Along the way, Tour reviews the many grave problems of blindly evolving the first living cell from prebiotic materials. Download the podcast or listen to it here. If you enjoy this primer, watch more of Dr. Tour’s Intro to Abiogenesis video series on YouTube. The debate itself is up now.