Amazon Review

The Stairway to Life: An Origin-of-Life Reality Check by Rob Stadler, a biomedical engineer, and Change Laura Tan, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, who has done research in genetics, developmental biology, molecular biology, the origin of life, and the origin of diversity, addresses the question of whether life was designed or whether the first living organism is the product of chance conjunctions of atoms and molecule. While the majority of mainstream scientists engaged in studying the origin of life take for granted that life is a product of chance, Stadler and Tan maintain that the steps which must be taken to create a living organism—a ‘stairway to life’—cannot plausibly have been climbed by a series of chance events but must have been intelligently designed.

The Stairway to Life details experiments in which origin of life scientists hope to explain how undesigned natural processes might create a first living organism. To do so, they carefully select materials which might combine to make larger wholes found in life and they then design processes which could combine these materials into a living organism. Part I summarizes Craig Venter’s attempt to design the genome of an organism called ‘Synthia.’ Venter might have tried to do this by trying to replicate the conditions under which life emerged, by engineering DNA from scratch, similar to writing computer code from scratch, by using code from a minimal gene set, or, least ambitiously, modifying the genome of an already living organism. In choosing the last method, Venter did not attempt to explain how life could emerge from chemicals but only to illustrate how some features of a living organism, drawn from a variety of living organisms, could modified to create an organism with an artificially engineered DNA code. Since DNA alone cannot create proteins but requires further machinery that reads code which tells it when to select a section of DNA and when to stop, Venter had to create machinery to perform this function. Among other carefully engineered procedures, Venter’s lab selected some features of this machinery from a prokaryote, some from an eukaryote—not a combination which would be found in nature. Even if Venter’s feat showed geneticists could create an organism with an artificial genome, it did not indicate that a human research team had created life itself.

Chapter 8 describes attempts to engineer untutored natural processes which could produce basic components needed for further construction, such as phospholipids, needed in a cell-membrane, or the nucleotides needed as components in RNA and DNA. They remark that not only does untutored nature lack assistance from a chemist and laboratory with purified reagents, it also lacks means to avoid degrading them once they are constructed, to separate out useful from other components, or to concentrate chemicals once they do exist.

Chapter 9 notes that while many chemicals in nature have both left and right hand symmetries, ‘chirality,’ life only uses one symmetry. They remark that nobody has ever been able to suggest a plausible abiotic process which could cause life to rely exclusively on one type of chirality.

Chapter 10 points out that, even given nucleotides with the right chirality, nobody has been able yet to engineer a natural process which could link these into the long sequences found in DNA, with up to 500,000 nucleotides linked together.

Chapter 11 notes that since every living organism can replicate its own structure, some natural process had to originate the DNA and RNA which organisms now use to create copies of nucleotides which can form into proteins. Since DNA is very complex, RNA origin of life scenarios try to imagine how RNA could create copies of itself. Decades of research have failed to explain how this is possible.

Chapter 12 notes that even if chance events could create sequences of self-replicating DNA or RNA, these would only provide a medium for encoding the information which an organism needs to create proteins, not yet a code for creating any given protein. The odds against a chance origin of such information are extreme.

Chapter 13 admits the possibility that even if sections of RNA and DNA had sufficient code to produce proteins, in the absence of a higher level system which regulates how much they produce, each gene will be like a cancer cell in a body which pursues its own ends regardless of their effect. If there is such a higher system, with an additional level of information, this too will need explanation.

Chapter 14 allows that DNA and RNA exist with the necessary information to create larger components. However, unless some higher level system continually corrects for degradation and errors, that information will be lost. This requires yet another higher level system, which, paradoxically, must be present in the very DNA which it is to repair.

Chapter 15 points out that while a cell in every living organism requires a membrane which separates its machinery from the eternal world, it must admit only selected chemicals while expelling others. To do this it needs a border-control authority created by its DNA. Since every membrane in a new cell derives from the structure in a prior membrane, to date, nobody has ever found organisms which develop membranes from scratch. Chapter 16 details the complexity of energy storage systems. While chapter 17 details the interdependency of DNA, RNA, and Proteins, chapter 18 considers how all the parts of a cell must be able to work together with others. After discussing why most mainstream scientists seek for a natural origin of life, the authors argue that since life is characterized by a flow of information, and since we know of no other source of information than intelligence, life must be intelligently designed.

Since I am a philosopher, not a biologist or geneticist, I cannot bring a scientist’s critical eye to Stadler and Tan. Nonetheless, I can recognize a well-argued and well-written book when I see it. I have read it three times with increasing pleasure and admiration each time. So far as I can tell, the authors have done their research in each of the topics which they cover. I believe that they do well to begin the book by examining the work of Craig Venter who claims to have created a synthetic form of life. As a prelude to further discussion, they aptly point out that Venter’s team did not create life from scratch but relied on components from prior organisms. They then approach the origin of life in a systematic way by considering simpler, and then more complex components, each of which would have to come into existence by chance if a living organism were eventually to emerge. Since each new component depends on the prior existence of other components, the odds successively decrease of an organism’s emerging by chance. They explain each topic in simple, clear, language which I could follow even as a biological layman. To aid understanding, they provide both apt and clever analogies. They say as much as they need in each section, then stop. Their work is entirely free of polemical attacks on the motives or character of the scientists whose views they question.

I think that anyone with at least a layman’s understanding of biology and genetics could profit from reading this work. If it accomplished nothing further, it would acquaint a reader with the many separate topics which origin of life must address. In fact, it does much more in pointing out how massively difficult it is to create a theory of the origin of life which does not appeal to intelligent design.

The Stairway to Life could serve as an introductory text in a college seminar which considered theories about the origin of life. Even though it does not provide a detailed summary of origin of life research, it indicates where students need to look to get further details. In my opinion, that the authors advocate intelligent design as a source of the origin of life does not disqualify it as a scientific treatise—at least to anyone who is willing to conceive that there might be more to reality than physics and chemistry.

I am a lawyer with formal education in geology, but none in any bio-science. However, I have self-studied origins science since 1982, and organized and led entities that have sought to promote it objectively since 1999.

As I started climbing each of the 12 steps necessary for life, I encountered scientific explanations that are well articulated, but often hard to follow due to my ignorance. However, after wading through a tough paragraph I always encountered a plain-English analogy that would leave me smiling with understanding. The author’s terrific use of analogy should engender understanding in anyone who has graduated from high school biology.

Another thing happened as I climbed each step. At the end of each chapter I found myself eager to take the next step. It was a bit like working a jig saw puzzle. As the pieces are fitted and the picture emerges understanding is enhanced. Like a puzzle The Stairway traps you into wanting to take the next step and then the next. As you seek a complete picture each step makes the climb exciting.

But then you get to the very end – and Bam, Bam, Bam!! I found myself writing in the margin – OUTSTANDING- BRILIANT! Then I went back through pages that I had annotated and found these inscriptions: “Terrific,” “Smart biochemists,” “Coherent,” “Comprehensive,” “Entirely Scientific,” “Compelling,” and “Essential.”

I initially thought it odd that I was not presented with the Stairway immediately. To get to the stairs I first had to traverse forty pages about a team of scientists led by Craig Venter who have toiled for 15 years in an attempt to create life using natural intelligence in the lab. It was a bit tedious, and I didn’t see how a study of minor modifications of an existing bacterium in a lab would be particularly relevant to whether first life arose by chance billions of years ago in a chaotic environment. In retrospect I find this preliminary essential. As I subsequently climbed the steps I constantly found myself thinking back about Venter’s project. It showed me that even with our current incredibly sophisticated level of intelligence we can’t even imagine how we might employ that intelligence to create the simplest form of life from scratch. It caused me to compare the extent of modern human intelligence with the level of intelligence needed to get to the top of the stairs four billion years ago on earth.

The Authors finally lead you to the conclusion that the essential difference between life and non-life is the unimaginably sophisticated coded complex functional information that runs it. You learn that the possible sources for that information reduce to (a) chance or (b) some form of intelligence far superior to that of the collective intelligence of the Venter team. They also show the lack of any evidence for (a) but lots of observable evidence for (b).

In the end they address the big question. If a materialistic origin of life is difficult to even imagine, then why has modern “science” published over 100,000 papers to support speculative narratives about how a part of one of the steps “might” have been climbed 4 billion years ago. They provide a seldom mentioned answer that just happens to be 100% correct! It is not evidence that drives research into an abiotic origin of life, rather it is a materialistic orthodoxy called methodological naturalism. That doctrine permits only materialistic explanations for the origin of life and its diversity. The evidence-based competing teleological alternative may not be considered. Since the competition is not permitted the materialist is then free in this inferential historical science to use imagination rather than evidence to support practically any just-so story. The end result is a materialistic myth essential to non-theistic belief systems.

So, the Stairway is perhaps the most comprehensive and lucid work about the origin of life that I have encountered since I began my study 38 years ago. The issue is important as methodological naturalism in historical origins science promotes non-theistic religions rather than an objective inference to the best evidence based scientific explanation.

John Calvert

4-15-2020

Very good book and well-written.

I'm a former high school English teacher, not a science person. But I've been interested in origin of life issues for a long time. I picked up this book after reading a good review about it, despite worrying that I might not comprehend the technical jargon and ideas. It impacted me enough to put it in the top ten books that have made a difference in my life.

It was definitely technical! Way over my head. But the authors were good at stating the facts, then clarifying them through analogies and examples. The summaries at the end of the chapters were very helpful.

I was impressed by the solid credentials of both authors. Their graduate degrees and career backgrounds include Harvard Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, and Harvard/MIT Health Sciences.

The authors bring the reader up to date as to what has been discovered in recent years in the study of cells and origin of life research. Chapter after chapter was mind-boggling to me in terms of complexity. For instance, four hundred essential genes (and much more) are needed in the simplest life form. Layer after layer of information in some kind of hierarchy is being discovered in these "simple" cells, only to find more layers to explore and understand. So far, no scientist, despite any claims, has come close to replicating from scratch any of the needed steps in the "stairway to life," as the authors name the process from chemistry to biology.

The evidence demonstrates that every living cell has come from another living cell packed with information. And every part of that cell must work together from the beginning to work at all. Where does this lead? Well, it certainly does not lead to the decades-old science establishment construct of millions of years of slow change over time with which no one must tamper or question. Apparently, even the evolutionists today are arguing with each other and questioning standard beliefs as more research is acquired.

I recommend that this book be required reading for all students in advanced high school and college science courses. It would generate much discussion about the ramifications of the evidence, which is sorely needed in educational places of learning today.

There were only two negatives for me. The cover is unattractive. It looks straight out of the 1950s, and that is not good. Two pages contained problems with subject/verb agreement (pp. 171 and 196), but these items can be easily fixed.

The authors do a masterful job of demonstrating many of the problems for abiogenesis. These problems include the complex and intractable mixtures obtained from prebiotic chemistry experiments, the problem of homochirality, the need for water yet the hydrolytic instability of life’s monomers and polymers, the problem of homolinkages, the need for a sequence of nucleotides that would create a self-replicating molecule, the need for the coexistence of various self-replicating molecules that worked together cooperatively instead of competitively through regulatory mechanisms, the need for repair mechanisms that operate faster than degradation processes, the need for semipermeable membranes for controlling molecular traffic into and out of the cell and to maintain proton gradients for powering molecular machines embedded in the membrane, the need for a means to harness and store energy, a means for moving from the RNA world to the DNA/RNA/protein world with complex enzymes and molecular machines made out of proteins, and the correct arrangement of cellular parts for the a cell to be viable.

One of the deeper insights concerning the RNA world is how it would lead to a dead end insofar as explaining the extant DNA/RNA/protein world. There would likely be no correspondence between the sequence of ribonucleotides required for a self-replicating ribozyme and the required nucleotide sequence of an mRNA molecule that coded for a protein with a similar function. Also insightful was the identification of the many molecules and functions that would need to be present at the same time. For example, as soon as a potentially self-replicating RNA molecule emerged, there would have to be already in place:

• A supply of pure monomers

• Repair mechanisms to prevent the system from ceasing to function due to error catastrophe and degradation

• Molecules that could keep the sense and antisense RNA strands separated to facilitate the replication cycle

• Molecules that could identify and destroy smaller and faster replicating RNA molecules so that larger RNA molecules with greater information capacities could survive and dominate

• Some type of containment system such as a cell membrane to prevent diffusion and dilution of monomers, etc.

Only the foresight of an intelligence could anticipate these needs; blind chance, chemistry, and physics have no foresight. Understanding the many molecules and functions required for life reveals life’s irreducible complexity and staggering improbability. Since a self-replicating RNA molecule has never been observed in nature or produced by well-trained chemists in over 50 years of trying, why should anyone suppose the RNA world is a realistic explanation for the origin of life? Clearly, nature is not up to the task of creating life, only maintaining it. Only a Brilliant Intelligence could have made us. The intricacy of biochemistry unmistakably points to a Creator (Rom. 1:19–20).

Very interesting book. I didn’t understand all of it since I’ve only had 1 college semester of biology, but I understood enough of it to learn something. It shows a lot of character that the authors are so honest about what scientists actually know or don’t know and the corruption that goes on in academia. The authors are clearly experts on the topic and you won’t find what they have to say in any other books.

This book presents a succinct yet informative glimpse of the landscape in current molecular biology research. A fine balance between technical details and analogies keeps its discussion engaging yet uncompromised. As one ascends the stairway guided by rigorous logic, the underlying premise becomes all the more compelling: the logical appeal of crossing from the inanimate to the animate without intervention by intelligence dissipated exponentially. The improbability of abiogenesis is heightened by the examination into the interdependent molecular phenomenons in the second half of the text. It’s not hard to compare the disjoint from naturalistic explanations at the molecular level to science's other great mysteries, no less fascinating than the unexplained effectiveness of mathematics. Reminiscent of every battle for truth, my speculation is that this book will be sought out and intensely challenged. Such rebuttals will nonetheless be testimonial to the book’s tenacious grip on objective reality from start to finish, typical of any scientific endeavor throughout history that demonstrates the courage of stepping away from mainstream thinkings to pursue where the evidence leads.

If you find intelligent design or origin-of-life research interesting, this is a great addition to your bookshelf. It's a quick read, focusing on several key issues, such as the creation of the building blocks (aminos, sugars), connecting them, replication, cell walls, and energy production. The key point is that life requires very specific molecular machines, and no one has any clue how a functioning proto-cell could have formed via naturalistic processes.

For example, proteins are strings of amino acids, and they do not naturally polymerize in water. However, one can isolate, dry, and heat them and they will polymerize. Sidney Fox did this way in the 1970s, and it was in textbooks for decades, and even still mentioned as an example of how life arose. Yet there are many problems remaining, as the book explains. One problem is that proteins use a particular bond to connect amino acids, the alpha-peptide bond, though many others are possible and none are favored. The famous chirality problem makes it highly improbable a natural string of 30 amino acids (a very small protein) would be all left-handed and thus viable: (1/2)^30 or 1e-10. If we add the fact that there's only a 20% chance that a bunch of left-handed amino acids will bond at the right place on his neighbor, that takes us to 1e-30.

There are lots of fun facts like that.

This book is information-rich and easy to read. They build OOL challenge upon OOL challenge until the challenge of OOL is truly presented as impossible via natural means. They do a fantastic job of showing how some OOL research has been presented to the world in glowingly dishonest terms such as a "self-replicating species whose parent is a computer."

The science of abiogenesis is clearly as legitimate as the science of perpetual motion.

Very interesting,reasonably in-depth,exploration of a truly fascinating topic.(don't be put off by the unavoidably technical nature of some of the contents;I'm no Nobel Prize candidate but was able to follow the overall gist well enough.)

Now,you don't have to be religious to appreciate that Darwin's clunking,nineteenth-century,'steampunk' theory is nowadays wholly(almost piteously) inadequate to account for the dazzlingly wondrous subtlety and complexity of life's bio-chemistry and this book brings forth this truth all but irrefutably.Whether God,some other agency of intelligent-design or something not thought of,(and possibly unthinkable) is the answer,who knows,but,for sure Neo-Darwinism isn't. Don't expect too many u-turns any time soon,though. As that pesky,uncooperative fossil record amply demonstrates;-before anything more advanced comes along,first the dinosaurs have to disappear.

Clear statements and logical layout. Can be easily read by non-biologists.

Sometimes, when I read books about intelligent design, I wonder if I’m being fed watered-down science for popular consumption. Not so here. Tan and Stadler explain the depths of molecular biology relating to origin of life in a way that is highly detailed but still accessible. That said, as the authors point out, the first chapters are hard going but well worth the effort. I’m not keen on the cover design but as they say, “ don’t judge the book…”

Gives you an excellent introduction into the real issues surrounding origin of life challenges.