Haven't Scientists Already Created Life in the Laboratory?
Origin-of-life experiments have made remarkable progress. Researchers have produced biologically important molecules, constructed membrane compartments, developed catalytic RNA molecules, demonstrated molecular replication, and built synthetic systems displaying some characteristics associated with living organisms.
If scientists can reproduce these processes experimentally, perhaps the origin of life is no longer a serious explanatory problem.
Why This Matters
This objection is important because discussions of the origin of life sometimes fail to distinguish between what has actually been demonstrated and what remains to be explained.
Neither side should minimize genuine experimental accomplishments. At the same time, producing individual components or life-like behaviors is not identical to producing an autonomous living system from plausible prebiotic starting materials.
Response
Scientists have not simply manufactured a complete autonomous living organism from nonliving prebiotic chemistry.
Experiments have demonstrated many important pieces of the problem. Researchers can produce organic precursors, construct vesicles, study self-replicating molecules, and combine sophisticated biological machinery in synthetic compartments. Recent synthetic systems can even display replication, heredity, selection, and evolutionary change.
These accomplishments are highly relevant because they show that several processes once discussed only theoretically can occur experimentally.
But an important distinction remains. Many advanced synthetic-cell experiments employ enzymes, purified translation systems, DNA or RNA templates, and other components ultimately derived from existing biology. Origin-of-life research asks the additional historical question of how the first such integrated system could have arisen before those biological systems existed.
The proper conclusion is therefore neither that experiments have solved the origin of life nor that they have accomplished nothing. They have established important parts of possible pathways while the complete transition remains under investigation.
Question That Remains
How much of the remaining gap between demonstrated prebiotic chemistry and an autonomous evolvable system can future experiments bridge?