On the latest episode of ID the Future, we’re pleased to share a new discussion between Dr. James Tour and Dr. Stephen Meyer about recent critiques of origin-of-life research published in the prestigious science journal Nature. The interview originally aired on The Science and Faith Podcast, hosted by Dr. Tour.

In a Nature comment, biochemist Nick Lane and bio-engineer Joana Xavier give a sobering assessment of the origin-of-life research field, advising fellow researchers that “brash claims for a breakthrough on the origin of life are unhelpful noise if they do not come in the context of a wider framework.” Drs. Tour and Meyer discuss the article’s findings. They also comment on a recent book review by Oxford emeritus biologist Denis Noble calling for a major rethink of biology in a piece titled “It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life.”

Dr. Meyer thinks the Nature articles represent a healthy corrective to a research field beset by hype and empty promises. He also reminds us that the more we learn about how to build an animal, the more challenging the origin-of-life problem becomes: “If you want to evolve one animal body plan into another, you’ve got to change the developmental gene regulatory network which is responsible for the building of body plans. But the one thing we know experimentally…is that’s the one thing that doesn’t happen.” 

So just how do you get from one animal body plan to another in light of new things we’ve learned? Currently, no theory of evolution can answer that question. Which explains why creating life from non-life in the lab is such a thorny and still unsolved proposition. 

Download the podcast or listen to it here. This interview originally aired on The Science and Faith Podcast, hosted by Dr. Tour. We are grateful to Dr. Tour for permission to share it. 

Dig Deeper

• Check out Dr. Tour’s YouTube channel for more videos about problems with origin of life research.