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The Mystery of Life's Origin

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The origin of life from non-life remains one of the most enduring mysteries of modern science. The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy investigates how close scientists are to solving that mystery and explores what we are learning about the origin of life from current research in chemistry, physics, astrobiology, biochemistry, and more. The book includes an updated version of the classic text The Mystery of Life’s Origin by Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, and Roger Olsen, and new chapters on the current state of the debate by chemist James Tour, physicist Brian Miller, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, biologist Jonathan Wells, and philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer.

432 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 27, 2020

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About the author

Charles B Thaxton

3 books2 followers

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Ricardo Moreno Mauro.
518 reviews31 followers
May 8, 2021
Bueno.
Este libro es una re-edición de al año 1994, más algunos capitulos extras del estado del arte en la búsqueda del origen de la vida en la tierra.

El libro cubre los aspectios básicos de la probable química prebiótica, el concepto de evolución química, aspecto geológicas, y el famoso experimento de Miller-Urey.

La gran conclusión es que:
1) como no se puede viajar al pasado realmente nunca vamos a decubrir o saber realmente el origen de la vida en la tierra
2) Todos los experimentos que se han echo, no han sdio en las mismas condicones que se supone estaba la tierra por aquel entonces.
3) Hay un gran problema en como se logró sintetizar (por azar) los aminoácido, y bases de los ácidos nucleicos y proteínas.
4) Los cáliclo teóricos, cono lo que se sabe, simplemente no dan cuenta de que la vida pudo haber surgido en forma espontánea.
5) pior ahora, aunque algunos no les guste, la MEJOR explicación es la de una inteligencia superior. La hipótesis de Dios.
6) Estio no quita que sigamos investigando, pero no descartar lo anteior.


Excelente libro que resume más de 80 años de historia de la ciencia.

Se puede ller sin grandes conocimientos de ciencias naturales, pero si se tiene, mejor aún.
215 reviews5 followers
August 5, 2023
Thorough and Convincing, but Probably Not for Everyone

The update to “The Mystery of Life’s Origins” by Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, and Roger Olsen (with excellent supplemental material from James Tour, Stephen Meyer, and others) is a tour de force on one of the great unexplained problems of science: how did life emerge from non-life? Thoroughly examining all the avenues which modern science has explored, the authors reveal the overwhelming weaknesses and recurrent misrepresentations of the quest for a naturalistic answer. In spite of its purported principles of objectivity, to go where the evidence leads, and to seek the best explanation, establishment science continues to limit itself with an arbitrary roadblock against the idea of design, no matter how compelling and proliferating the evidence. “Mystery” convincingly demonstrates the failures of this presupposition through biology, chemistry, thermodynamics and other scientific approaches, and does so in a mostly readable way. That said, such a topic is necessarily technical, and the depth may be beyond many readers’ comprehension or interest. It’s an excellent book but geared towards a narrow audience.
Profile Image for Mike Lisanke.
1,727 reviews34 followers
April 5, 2023
Unfortunately, I didn't read the version with the James Tour afterward. What many excluding the author can't concluded is, hand-waving will get theorists over legitimate arguments and objections. Also, the idea that simple algorithms can create more complex algorithms is never Apparent. We still dn't know what we need to know to understand how life was created from nothing, And; those who'd say life was created from something would still need to explain who/what created this something. God or any super/meta existence isn't an explanation. Many of us would like to know, if God created life on Earth, is it everywhere else And just how does God do this... invention of biochemistry? Something else? Indistinguishable from magic?
I found the book one of the interesting books I've found along the way in learning what we've learned about abiogenesis. Oh, and readers don't give up after early chapters have you think the author will continue to pose small minded theories about how life got going.
Profile Image for Frank Peters.
1,040 reviews63 followers
April 3, 2021
This is a powerful book, and worth reading and thinking over. Due to the technical content, it is not particularly pleasant or entertaining. The new chapter by James Tour was a highlight. Ultimately, the book provides an extensive series of arguments that suggest that not only is there no current theory for life’s origin, but there is strong scientific reasons why this is not possible without outside intelligence.
1 review
January 21, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. It gets a bit difficult to understand at some parts, especially when the chemical reactions of different elements are explained, so it is easy to get lost in the details, but overall it is a very interesting book, if you keep an open mind to the many exciting possibilities we could explore.
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