ORIGIN OF LIFE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1929, Page 2

ORIGIN OF LIFE

SILENCE OF SCIENCE. In a recent article in Le Petit Journal the Abbe Mol’oux, distinguished French savant and director of the Observatory of Bourges, discusses the question of the origin of life. He says: ‘‘Could the science of to-day give us an approach to the problem of our origins? Not at all. One may add that the more science develops the belter it comprehends the difficulty of our investigations of the birth of life on the earth. A savant may make a pretence of telling an ignorant public how organic matter is formed. But he assured that he is doing nothing but juggle wi ll a pure hypothesis. “Science needs experimental proofs, and one does not see very well how a so-called scientist can proceed to demonstrate to us that matter lias always existed. “When we approach the famous problem of life we must change tactics. It is scientifically demonstrated that omic—billions of years ago—our humble planet burned like a sun. All the materials composing it were incandescent and gradually cooled off in contact with outer space, of which the temperature is nearly 273 degrees, centigrade, below zero. THE MOMENT OF BIRTH.

“Moreover, since the earth in its celestial travels never remains in the same place, we can conceive that the cold quickly invaded the superficial layer and permitted the vital phenomenon to be established on the solidified crust or in the warm waters of the seas of distant epochs.

“It is imagined m certain quarters that the appearance of life is connected with some spiritual or religious dogma. That is a serious error. Before the memorable experiments of Pasteur almost all the intelligent admitted spontaneous generation tq.be probab e and it was a current doctrine among the theologians of the Middle Ages. After Pasteur all had to change their batteries.

“In fact we too often forget that ing at all. The question is whether, the Pasteur experiments prove nothin the climatological, physical, and chemical conditions which once existed on the earth, inert elements, like carbon, hydrogen, azote, etc,, were able to combine fortuitously to give birth to what we call a cell—that is to say an entity capable of indefinite reproduction. For, if the savants cannot yet tell us what life consists in, it seems that they all agree in affirming that this indefinite reproduction of matter which perpetuates itself in time is reallv t lie exclusive appanage of the vital phenomenon. EXPLORING A NEW COUNTRY.

“That is exactly the way the problem presents itself, and there are two ways of solving it—one bad and one good. “The bad way is to erect a scaffolding of theories the best of which are worthless, because they are uncontrollable and therefore inexistent. The good way would draw its inspiration from the experimental method. That has been tried. Bertliolet, following others/sought to fabricate a substance endowed with life. Up to now nobody, has succeeded in doing this. “The chemistry of the cell eludes us. As we advance in the atomic domain it seems that we are exploring a new country which has nothing in common with our usual syntheses, and we must have a childlike candour to affirm that science, in the last century, has taught us anything about flic origin of life.”