Fact 1
Prebiotic forces cannot create the basic DNA or RNA structure.
FOUR MOLECULES are needed for life: nucleotides, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. Nucleotides which are composed of a trimeric nucleobase-carbohydrate-phosphate combination, and once polymerized, constitute DNA and RNA. Five different nucleobases comprise the entire alphabet for DNA and RNA.
Grok3 AI 5/1/25
What is DNA?
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a long molecule that contains an organism’s unique genetic code. It holds the instructions for building all of the proteins that make up life as we understand it. Here’s a concise breakdown:
Structure: DNA is a double helix, resembling a twisted ladder. Its sides are made of sugar and phosphate, and the rungs are pairs of four chemical bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). A always pairs with T, and C with G.
Function: DNA stores genetic information in cells, dictating how organisms develop, function, and reproduce. It’s passed from generation to generation, determining inherited traits.
Location: In humans, most DNA is found in the cell nucleus (nuclear DNA), with a small amount in mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA).
Role in Life: Genes, segments of DNA, code for proteins or regulate other genes. These proteins drive biological processes, from eye color to immune responses.
Replication and Mutation: DNA replicates during cell division to pass on genetic info. Errors (mutations) can lead to variations, some beneficial, others harmful (diseases like cancer).
Dr. James Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, has been highly critical of current research on the origin of life, particularly regarding the difficulties of forming nucleotides under prebiotic conditions. Here are some key points he emphasizes:
1. Lack of Plausible Prebiotic Pathways
Tour argues that no known prebiotic synthesis provides a realistic pathway to form nucleotides—molecules that make up RNA and DNA—under early Earth conditions. He highlights that forming nucleotides requires multiple specific chemical steps, each needing precise conditions (e.g., pH, temperature, and concentration of reactants), which are difficult to envision occurring spontaneously.
2. Nucleotide Complexity
Nucleotides are composed of a nitrogenous base, a sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate group. Tour explains that assembling these components in a prebiotic setting is fraught with challenges. For example:
Ribose, the sugar in RNA, is unstable and difficult to form in significant quantities.
The attachment of the phosphate group to the sugar-base combination to form a nucleotide is highly improbable without enzymes.
3. Chemical Incompatibility
Tour stresses that the chemical conditions required to form different components of nucleotides (bases, sugars, phosphates) are often mutually exclusive. This means that conditions favoring the formation of one component would likely destroy another.
DNA is a double strand of nucleotides joined together linearly to form Polynucleotides. One of 4 bases then join to each Nucleotide.
RNA is produced through a process called transcription, where a segment of DNA is copied into RNA by the enzyme RNA polymerase. RNA is used in various ways to create proteins to facilitate life in the cell.
Grok 3 - 5/1/25
Dr. James Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, has been highly critical of current research on the origin of life, particularly regarding the difficulties of forming nucleotides under prebiotic conditions. Here are some key points he emphasizes:
1. Lack of Plausible Prebiotic Pathways
Tour argues that no known prebiotic synthesis provides a realistic pathway to form nucleotides—molecules that make up RNA and DNA—under early Earth conditions. He highlights that forming nucleotides requires multiple specific chemical steps, each needing precise conditions (e.g., pH, temperature, and concentration of reactants), which are difficult to envision occurring spontaneously.
2. Nucleotide Complexity
Nucleotides are composed of a nitrogenous base, a sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate group. Tour explains that assembling these components in a prebiotic setting is fraught with challenges. For example:
Ribose, the sugar in RNA, is unstable and difficult to form in significant quantities.
The attachment of the phosphate group to the sugar-base combination to form a nucleotide is highly improbable without enzymes.
3. Chemical Incompatibility
Tour stresses that the chemical conditions required to form different components of nucleotides (bases, sugars, phosphates) are often mutually exclusive. This means that conditions favoring the formation of one component would likely destroy another.
4. No Proof of Continuous Synthesis
According to Tour, no experiment has demonstrated a continuous, naturalistic synthesis of nucleotides from basic prebiotic molecules under realistic early Earth conditions. While individual steps may be replicated in the lab, they require human intervention (e.g., purification, changing conditions) that would not be present in a natural setting.
DNA and RNA require enzymes, DNA and RNA Polymerase to form. If you don’t have the complex enzymes, then you can’t make the DNA and RNA.
Chat GPT 2/5/25
In his discussions, Dr. James Tour often highlights the critical role of enzymes in biochemical processes, particularly in nucleotide synthesis and polymerization, and emphasizes how the absence of enzymes in prebiotic conditions poses a significant challenge to origin-of-life theories. Here are some of his points on enzymes:
1. Essential for Nucleotide Synthesis
Enzymes are required for assembling nucleotides efficiently. In modern cells, specialized enzymes catalyze every step of nucleotide synthesis, ensuring specificity and high yield. Without enzymes, forming nucleotides is extremely difficult due to the lack of reaction control.
2. Polymerization Challenge
Even if nucleotides were available prebiotically, linking them into long chains (like RNA or DNA) without enzymes is highly problematic. Tour explains that in biological systems, enzymes drive this process with precision, while in a prebiotic setting, uncontrolled polymerization would result in random, non-functional chains.
3. High Selectivity of Enzymes
Tour underscores how enzymes not only catalyze reactions but also prevent side reactions that would produce useless or destructive compounds. This high selectivity is critical for life, and its absence in a prebiotic world makes spontaneous formation of complex molecules highly improbable.
4. Energy Management
Enzymatic processes manage the energy required for forming bonds. Without enzymes, energy transfer is difficult, and spontaneous formation of the phosphodiester bonds that link nucleotides would be extremely unlikely.
The Carbohydrate Problem
Grok3 5/10/25
Ask: Dr James Tour discusses the “Carbohydrate problem” in the prebiotic formation of DNA and RNA.
Dr. James Tour, a prominent chemist, highlights the “carbohydrate problem” in the context of prebiotic chemistry and the origin of life, particularly regarding the formation of DNA and RNA. This problem centers on the extreme difficulty of synthesizing carbohydrates (sugars), such as ribose, under prebiotic conditions in a way that could lead to the formation of nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA and RNA.
Key Points of the Carbohydrate Problem:
1. Ribose Synthesis Challenges
Ribose, the sugar component of RNA (and deoxyribose for DNA), is critical for forming the backbone of these molecules.
The most commonly proposed prebiotic synthesis route for ribose is the formose reaction, where formaldehyde reacts to form sugars. However, this reaction is highly inefficient and produces a complex mixture of sugars, with ribose being a minor and unstable product.
Ribose is chemically unstable and degrades quickly under the conditions thought to exist on early Earth, making it unlikely to accumulate in sufficient quantities.
2. Selectivity Issues
The formose reaction lacks specificity, generating a wide variety of sugars (including non-biological ones) rather than selectively producing ribose.
Prebiotic chemistry would need a mechanism to isolate and stabilize ribose over other sugars, which is a significant hurdle given the lack of enzymes or catalysts in a prebiotic environment.
3. Integration with Nucleotides
Even if ribose were synthesized, combining it with a nucleobase (e.g., adenine) and a phosphate group to form a nucleotide is extraordinarily difficult without enzymatic assistance.
The chemical conditions required for these reactions often conflict, further complicating the process. For example, conditions that favor sugar formation may not support nucleobase or phosphate attachment.
4. Chirality Problem
Ribose must be in the correct chiral form (D-ribose for RNA) to function in biological systems. Prebiotic reactions, however, produce racemic mixtures (equal amounts of D- and L-ribose), and there is no known prebiotic mechanism to preferentially select the D form.
5. Tour’s Broader Argument
Dr. Tour emphasizes that the carbohydrate problem is one of many unresolved issues in abiogenesis (the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter).
He argues that the complexity and specificity required for carbohydrate synthesis, combined with the lack of plausible prebiotic pathways, pose significant challenges to the idea that DNA and RNA could form spontaneously on early Earth.
Episode 5/13: Carbohydrates
RNA has a short lifespan
Polymer Stability Problem
Grok3 5/10/25
Ask: Dr James Tour discusses the “Polymer Stability problem” in the prebiotic formation of DNA and RNA.
Dr. James Tour, a renowned synthetic organic chemist, addresses the “polymer stability problem” in the context of prebiotic chemistry and the origin of life, specifically regarding the formation of DNA and RNA. This problem focuses on the challenges of forming and maintaining stable, biologically functional polymers like DNA and RNA under prebiotic conditions.
Key Points of the Polymer Stability Problem:
1. Difficulty in Polymer Formation
DNA and RNA are long chains (polymers) of nucleotides, which consist of a sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nucleobase.
• Forming these polymers prebiotically requires linking nucleotides via phosphodiester bonds, a process that is chemically challenging without enzymes. In modern cells, enzymes facilitate this process, but no such catalysts existed on early Earth.
• The condensation reactions needed to form these bonds are thermodynamically unfavorable in aqueous environments (like the primordial Earth), as water promotes hydrolysis (breaking of bonds) rather than polymerization.
2. Instability of Polymers
Even if short strands of DNA or RNA were formed, they would be highly unstable under prebiotic conditions.
RNA, in particular, is prone to hydrolysis due to the presence of a hydroxyl group on its ribose sugar, which makes the phosphodiester backbone susceptible to cleavage. DNA is slightly more stable but still degrades under harsh prebiotic conditions (e.g., high temperatures, UV radiation, or extreme pH).
Early Earth conditions, such as fluctuating temperatures, high salinity, or exposure to UV light, would likely degrade any nascent polymers before they could accumulate or function.
3. Lack of Sequence Specificity
For DNA or RNA to be biologically functional, they must have specific sequences of nucleotides that can encode information or catalyze reactions (e.g., in the RNA World hypothesis).
Prebiotic chemistry lacks mechanisms to control the sequence of nucleotides during polymerization, resulting in random, non-functional chains. Achieving sequence-specific polymers without a template or enzymatic guidance is a major unsolved problem.
4. Concentration and Purification Issues
Polymerization requires high concentrations of nucleotides, but prebiotic environments would likely have dilute and impure mixtures of organic molecules.
Competing molecules (e.g., non-biological sugars or other organic compounds) could interfere with polymerization or incorporate into chains, rendering them non-functional.
5. Chirality and Structural Challenges
Nucleotides must be homochiral (e.g., D-ribose for RNA) for stable and functional polymers. Prebiotic reactions produce racemic mixtures (D- and L-forms), and mixed chirality disrupts the formation of stable helical structures in DNA/RNA.
The correct three-dimensional structure (e.g., RNA’s ability to fold or DNA’s double helix) is essential for function but difficult to achieve without precise chemical control.
Scientists Deceive Public. Dr. Rob Stadler Dissects Origin of Life Science Claims on RNA Replication
DNA must fold and be flexible or it is inaccessible and useless.
Your Body's Molecular Machines
DNA is a flexible and dynamic molecule capable of folding into highly intricate shapes and structures. This incredible flexibility allows DNA to engage in highly versatile biological processes such as replication, transcription, and repair… and these essential functions make DNA what it is. In other words, its very ability to flex, twist, and contort into these various shapes is what makes it the building blocks of life. DNA couldn’t build life, as we know it, without these characteristics. As we gain insights into the sophisticated design of DNA’s machinery, it substantiates the inarguable brilliance of its design.
What If It Was Static?
Just to start the conversation, below is a list of things that wouldn’t be possible if DNA was static and inflexible:
It wouldn’t fit inside the nucleus of a cell.
Cells wouldn’t be able to replicate their DNA before division, meaning growth, repair, and reproduction would grind to a halt.
Genes would remain locked inside the rigid helix, making it nearly impossible for transcription machinery to access them.
Cells wouldn’t be able to produce the proteins they need to survive and function.
Damaged sections would remain inaccessible.
The cell’s ability to maintain genetic integrity would collapse, leading to dysfunction and death.
The cell would have no way to organize its genetic material efficiently.
Chat GPT
The gist is that DNA wouldn’t be itself… and that also means it could not do the extraordinary things that are essential to biological life. If just that one difference was made to the helix, it would change life in catastrophic ways.
What Kind of Flexibility is Displayed in DNA?
DNA is able to bend, be tied into knots, and exemplifies flexibility in a variety of other ways.
But as recent as 2018, this wasn’t commonly understood to be the case. In 2018, a study published in Nature Chemistry revealed the expansive nature of the genome, being expressed through knots and bends. See article here for information about this discovery. New Twisted 'Knot' Human DNA Structure Discovered—and It Looks Nothing Like the Double Helix - Newsweek
Then, last year, researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research published research actually mapping 50,000 different DNA knots.
What Kind of Flexibility is Displayed in DNA?
The variations from the iconic double helix shape, that most people associate with the shape of the DNA, are called “i-motifs.”
Quoting the article:
“They form when stretches of cytosine letters on the same DNA strand pair with each other, creating a four-stranded, twisted structure protruding from the double helix. The researchers found that i-motifs are not randomly scattered but concentrated in key functional areas of the genome, including regions that control gene activity.
"We discovered that i-motifs are associated with genes that are highly active during specific times in the cell cycle. This suggests they play a dynamic role in regulating gene activity," says Cristian David Peña Martinez, a research officer in the Antibody Therapeutics Lab and first author of the study.”
See Full Article Here: Researchers map 50,000 of DNA's mysterious 'knots' in the human genome.
But this leads into a very important part of this miraculous discovery. The fact that the DNA double helix isn’t static, and the fact that there is both flexibility, and the fact that it's customized for the purpose that’s needed is extraordinary. But listen to what is said: “[the] i-motifs are not randomly scattered by concentrated in key functional areas…” In other words, these customized DNA helices have a specific function. They are fulfilling a specific purpose. They are NOT random.
And note the language used by Martinez, the first author of this study, as he elaborates. “They play a dynamic role in regulating gene activity.”
They sound like a multitude of little engines that are fulfilling a specific purpose, and of course we know DNA to be that way already, but this simply adds to the extraordinary complexity of their design and the need for a Designer in DNA Formation.
Fact 1 Summary
Prebiotic forces cannot create the basic DNA or RNA structure.
Lack of prebiotic pathway.
Nucleotide Complexity.
Chemical Incompatibility.
No Proof of Continuous Synthesis
Formation requires complex enzymes
The Carbohydrate problem
The Polymer stability problem
DNA must fold and be flexible or it is inaccessible and useless.
Prebiotic forces cannot create the basic nucleotides needed to form the complex Polynucleotide DNA and RNA. This is only one building block needed for the survival of a basic cell.
In FACT 2, prebiotic forces cannot create the basic building blocks needed for the development of the basic cell. We will explore the remaining 3 building blocks needed for Life: Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Lipids.