Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 370
ORIGIN OF LIFE – DIFFERENT THEORIES AND PROPOSITIONS have indicated only the contamination it must have received after reaching the earth and cooling down. Those who insisted that it is possible for the organic material to have reached the earth safely from space, without confronting frictional heat, proposed another mode of transport which would be free from this flaw. It was suggested that the organic material might have been carried by small particles enwrapped in protective layers of icy covers such as found in the tails of comets. They could have softly alighted upon the earth like dew. . Returning once again to the epoch-making experiment performed by Miller, and the storm it raised, it did not take very long for its dust to settle down. In the calm that ensued, many a cool-minded reappraisal was conducted by some scientists. . One most eminent scholar R. E. Dickerson, in his excellent article Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life, has critically examined at length the inferences drawn from. Millers' experiment, in a detached, unbiased study. One thing that emerges predominantly from his review is that all the facts and experimental data relating to the Miller experiment were not included in the early reports. . Dickerson deemed it essential to point out: 'Although the simulations yield many of the amino acids found in the proteins of living organisms, they also yield at least as many related molecules that are not present. ,6. Experiments, simulating Miller's pioneer work, carried out by other scientists, revealed that out of three isomeric forms of an amino acid produced during these experiments ‘only valine appears in proteins today'. None of the seven amino acid isomers, created during sparkdischarge experiments has been ‘disignated as a protein 359