Review: Simulation of Earth-Based Theory with Lifeless Results

Reviewed Work(s): First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How
Life Began by David Deamer
Review by: Chandra Wickramasinghe
Source: BioScience , Vol. 63, No. 2 (February 2013), pp. 141-143
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological
Sciences
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/bio.2013.63.2.12

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 Books

It is clear that Helgen held tenaciously causes (Sessions 1996, Lannoo 2008).
to the goal of keeping the project funded Deformed frogs are a great case in Simulation of Earth-Based
and moving forward, and her commit- point—one that deserves our attention, Theory with Lifeless Results
ment to her work was critical to bring- regardless of how much we may care
ing so much attention to the issue. Less about the fate of frogs themselves. First Life: Discovering the Connec-
clear is the portrayal of the MPCA (now In reflecting on Helgen’s story, tions between Stars, Cells, and How
her former employer) as an unwilling I kept asking myself what kind of Life Began. David Deamer. University
partner in her work. At every turn in the response would have been mounted of California Press, 2012. 286 pp., illus.
book, funds are threatened, her position were the deformities afflicting humans $24.95 (ISBN 9780520274457 paper).
is in jeopardy, or the project is des- instead of frogs. As Helgen notes in
tined to be taken from her control and the book, whatever was causing the
ruined. She repeatedly implies that the maladies to frogs could potentially
people behind these actions may have
dark motives. But this is not investigative
reporting, and readers are left only with
represent a threat to the health of
other species, including humans. (At
one point, Minnesota families living
F irst Life: Discovering the Connec-
tions between Stars, Cells, and How
Life Began is an eloquent exposition of
the author’s vague sense of conspiracy near ponds with deformed frogs were what can be described as the “conven-
with little to support it. Whatever the being supplied with bottled drinking tional wisdom” on Earth-based theo-
facts, few readers will conclude that the water against just such a possibility.) ries of the origin of life. Author David
system worked well in this case. Undoubtedly, millions of dollars and Deamer, professor of biomolecular
hundreds of researchers would have engineering and research professor
been involved—and yet, it might have of chemistry and biochemistry at the
taken years to work out what was hap- University of California, Santa Cruz,
pening. It is not so surprising, then, is a preeminent leader in the field and
that the very few who have worked on tells his personal story of discovery in
the issue have not produced a defini- a unique and absorbing way. The text
tive understanding of deformed frogs. is sprinkled throughout with interest-
Helgen deserves great credit for her ing anecdotes of how leading figures
accomplishments under the circum- in the  field of biochemistry influ-
stances and for bringing the issue back enced the author and his scientific
under our scrutiny. career, thus driving home the fact that
science is an intensely human pur-
References cited suit. The topics covered in the book’s
Lannoo MJ. 2008. Malformed Frogs. University 15 chapters span a wide range, from
So, what is the bottom line? Perhaps of California Press. meteorites and biochemical pathways
the largest lesson lies with what is Likens G, Bormann FH. 1974. Acid rain: A to evolution and the prospects for
serious regional environmental problem.
still not evident: However sophisti- synthetic life, but Deamer keeps well
­Science 184: 1176–1179.
cated our approaches, developing an Sessions SK. 1996. Evidence supports theory that
within the bounds of consensus and
understanding of the causes of certain frog deformities caused by parasites. Out- convention throughout the book.
types of environmental threats will door News, the Sportsman’s Weekly 1: 9. Cultural constraints dating back to
take a great deal of time and effort. Souder W. 2000. A Plague of Frogs: The Horrify- pre-Copernican times have tended
ing True Story. Hyperion.
Commonly, when an environmental to restrict origin-of-life investigations
Sussman B. 2010. Climategate: A Veteran Meteo-
problem emerges, we can readily dis- rologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam. to within an Earth-centered frame-
cern the cause and figure out what we WND Books. work; First Life is no exception.
would need to do to remedy the issue. The functioning of a living sys-
Acid rain offers one clear example. DAVID K. SKELLY tem depends on thousands of chemi-
The symptom led us to the cause David K. Skelly (david.skelly@ cal reactions taking place within a
and to the range of possible solutions yale.edu) is a professor of ecology and ­membrane-bound cellular structure.
(Likens and Bormann 1974). It is with associate dean at the School of Forestry Such reactions, grouped into metabolic
increasing frequency, however, that and Environmental Studies at Yale pathways, have the ability to harness
we are encountering environmental University, in New Haven, Connecticut. chemical energy from the surrounding
issues that  we simply do not under- He recently coauthored a publication medium in a series of very small steps:
stand. Initially, we may not even know for the journal Ecology Letters (2010 transporting small molecules into
how to study them or when we have 13: 60–67) entitled “An examination of cells, building biopolymers of various
reached false conclusions about their amphibian sensitivity to environmental sorts, and ultimately making copies of
contaminants: Are amphibians poor themselves while possessing a capac-
doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.2.11 canaries?” ity to evolve. Batteries of enzymes,

www.biosciencemag.org February 2013 / Vol. 63 No. 2 • BioScience 141

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Books

composed of chains of amino acids, of the origin of life by making trillions The only astronomical connection
play a crucial role as catalysts precisely of half-micron-size cellular compart- with the problem of the origin of life
controlling the rates of chemical reac- ments by adding water to dry lipids that is endorsed by Deamer is his
tions. Without enzymes, there could in a flask. To this, he adds a solution acknowledgment of Sir Fred Hoyle’s
be no life. of small peptides and nucleic acids in groundbreaking contribution to our
Since the twentieth century, the the  hope that, among the trillion or understanding of how the chemi-
most important metabolic pathways in so cellular compartments and a vast cal element carbon—the element of
biology have been unraveling (e.g., the array of biological monomer combi- life—is synthesized in stars. Hoyle
carbon dioxide cycle in plants), and nations, a proto-living system will be and I took the astronomical connec-
a number of Nobel Prizes have been found. The failure to witness any trend tion much further in the mid-1970s,
awarded for such ground­breaking dis- whatsoever toward the emergence of a when we proposed that organic mol-
coveries. However, even if we pos- living system is attributed to the infini- ecules resembling biochemicals were
sessed a complete knowledge of all tesimal scale of the laboratory system distributed everywhere in the galaxy
the metabolic pathways in biology, we when it is compared with the terres- and, moreover, that such molecules
would not come any closer to under- trial setting in which life is thought to were most plausibly the product of
standing the processes by which the have arisen. Yet, if we move from the life itself—the detritus of life. Com-
simplest living system emerged. The laboratory flask to the oceans of the parisons of astronomical infrared
prebiotic models discussed in First Life Earth, we gain in volume only a factor spectra with organic polymers and
(e.g., the clay world, the iron–sulphur of about 1020, and in time, from weeks biomaterial were made by us well
world, the RNA world) are all possible in the laboratory to half a billion years, ahead of those made by the investiga-
intermediate genetic systems that pos- the gain is an additional factor of 1010. tors at NASA’s Ames Research Cen-
sess a lower level of complexity, but In the probability calculation for the ter, to whom the author gives credit
where such systems may have oper- single ribozyme, we therefore gain a in his book. In fact, the first pro-
ated remains unspecified. Terrestrial factor of 1030 in all, which reduces the posal of organic ­polymers in inter­
venues for the origin of life have been improbability factor given by Deamer stellar grains was published in Nature
explored in the book as the sites of from 1 in 10180 to 1 in 10150. between 1974 and 1977 (Wickramas-
choice, although all such venues are inghe 1974, Hoyle and Wickramas-
grossly inadequate, in my view, to inghe 1977a, 1977b, Wickramasinghe
overcome the enormous hurdles of et al. 1977).
improbability that are involved. Deamer’s cavalier dismissal of pan­
In present-day biology, the infor- spermia is to be regretted in view of
mation contained in enzymes—the the growing evidence that microbial
arrangements of amino acids into life is exceedingly robust and that inter­
folded chains—is crucial for life, and planetary panspermia is inevitable. The
this information is transmitted by way arena of life is thereby extended across
of the coded ordering of nucleotides the entire solar system, and much
in DNA. In a hypothetical RNA world grander settings for Deamer’s labora-
that may have predated the DNA pro- tory simulations can be envisaged.
tein world, RNA is posited to serve a The argument that panspermia must
dual role as both enzyme and genetic be rejected because it merely trans-
transmitter. If a few ribozymes are fers the problem of origin from Earth
regarded as precursors to all life, one On this basis, it is very difficult to to another setting is by no means
could attempt to make an estimate avoid the conclusion that the emer- scientific. The question of whether
of the probability of the assembly of gence of the first evolvable cellular life started de  novo on Earth or was
a simple ribozyme composed of 300 life  form was a unique event in the introduced from the wider universe is
bases, as is done on page  216 of the cosmos. If this did indeed happen on a fully scientific question that merits
book. This probability turns out to be Earth for the first time, it must be investigation and one that is open to
1 in 4300, which is equivalent to 1 in regarded as a near-miraculous event testing and verification. The invoca-
10180, which, as Deamer admits, can that could not be repeated elsewhere, tion of Occam’s razor to exclude a
hardly be supposed to happen even let alone in any laboratory simulation discussion of such matters is unfor-
once in the entire 13.7-billion-year of the process. To overcome improb- tunate and merely an excuse for keep-
history of the universe. abilities on the scale that is involved ing scientific discussion within the
Deamer describes his ambitious lab- here, it stands to reason that one would strict bounds of what is considered
oratory setup to attempt a simulation gain immensely by going for the big- de  rigueur. It is strikingly reminiscent
gest system available—manifestly, the of the restrictions that stifled science
doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.2.12 universe as a whole. in the Middle Ages.

142 BioScience • February 2013 / Vol. 63 No. 2 www.biosciencemag.org

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 Books

Ultraviolet and infrared spectral How to Contact AIBS

signatures that could be regarded
New Titles
as having a connection with biol- BioScience
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References cited
Hoyle F, Wickramasinghe NC. 1977a. Iden- 703-674-2500 x. 326 Dan Taylor, and David W. Broken-
tification of the λ2, 200Å interstellar sha, eds. Practical Action Publishing,
absorption feature. Nature 270: 323–324. Education Office: 2012. 224 pp., illus. $19.95 (ISBN
doi:10.1038/270323a0 smusante@aibs.org 9781853397356 paper).
———. 1977b. Polysaccharides and infrared 703-674-2500 x. 311
spectra of galactic sources. Nature 268: The Ethics of Species: An Introduc-
­610–612. doi:10.1038/268610a0
Executive Director: rogrady@aibs.org
Wickramasinghe NC. 1974. Formaldehyde 703-674-2500 x. 258 tion. Ronald L. Sandler. Cambridge
­polymers in interstellar space. Nature 252: University Press, 2012. 245 pp.,
Membership Records:
462–463. doi:10.1038/252462a0 ­illus.  $29.99 (ISBN 9781107658707
membership@aibs.org
———. 2010. The astrobiological case for our paper).
cosmic ancestry. International Journal of 703-674-2500 x. 247
Astrobiology 9: 119–129. Community Programs: Evolution and the Mechanisms of
Wickramasinghe NC, Hoyle F, Brooks J, Shaw G.
1977. Prebiotic polymers and infrared spec-
spotter@aibs.org Decision Making. Peter Hammer-
tra of galactic sources. Nature 269: 674–676.
941-321-1573 stein and Jeffrey R. Stevens, eds. MIT
doi:10.1038/269674a0 Public Policy Office: rgropp@aibs.org Press, 2012. 488 pp., illus. $50.00
202-628-1500 x. 250 (ISBN 9780262018081 cloth).
Chandra Wickramasinghe
Chandra Wickramasinghe Scientific Peer-Review Services: Flies: The Natural History and
(ncwick@gmail.com) is director of the sglisson@aibs.org Diversity of Diptera. Stephen A.
Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at 703-674-2500 x. 202 Marshall. Firefly Books, 2012. 616 pp.,
the University of Buckingham, in the illus. $125.00 (ISBN 9781770851009
Web/IT Services:
United Kingdom. He is the coauthor of jwagener@aibs.org cloth).
the recent work Comets And the Origin 703-674-2500 x. 107
of Life (World Scientific). doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.2.13

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