Amino Acids Created in Deep-Space-Like Environment

klevin writes "NASA scientists today announced the creation of amino acids, critical for life, in an environment that mimics deep space. The above link is the press release, with additional details here."

Comments

Re:Another blow against creationists

[Llywelyn]

Prefix: I am not a Creationist.

"I think this is proof against one of the arguments creationist wackos have been making for quite a long time"

Actually this does nothing of the sort.

What this shows is that the basic components of life--Amino Acids--/can/ be generated in a deep space environment. Whoop de do. The argument against abiogenisis (chemical evolution) stems from the following:

1) Probability versus chance of creating functional proteins. We don't know what this is, but we do know that it is incredibly small. The probability is so small, in fact, that no number of trials that could have occurred within the lifespan of the universe would be sufficient.

2) The number of mutations it takes to create a functional allele (what gives us different characteristics) is a *massive* number. The number of mutations it takes to make a functional allele "nonfunctional" is *one*.

3) It takes millions of mutations to create a hox gene. The number it takes to take one out is *trivial* by comparison.

This does not make the creationist argument correct, but it doesn't mean that this evidence of where Amino Acids can or cannot form lends credence to abiogenesis to the degree or diversity of life that we see.