More building blocks of life made in the lab and evolution witnessed

I've said several times that they need to let this thing go for several more years... decades even. Expecting to see evolution in action after a handful of generations just doesn't work. You need a LOT more time than that.

they did see evolution...

Absolutely. However what they are looking for (the article points this out) are novel evolutionary changes... those things that signal "Hey!!! Life!!!" This is why I suggested more time... this Rome wasn't built in a day.

In any case, seeing a self-replicating and evolving strain of artificial proteins is absolutely amazing in itself. Hear that, creationists? That's death knocking on your door. Loudly.

FROM ARTICLE: 'After 77 generations, all the original replicators were gone - taken over by the new variants, stronger and mightier than before.'


I have a hard time understanding how this goes against evolutionary theory...

Evolutionary biology requires life in order to work and works only upon life. This is one of the bigger retorts to creationist mumbo-jumbo (i.e. somehow evolutionary biology has to explain the origins of life along with its diversity). The scientists are trying EXTREMELY hard not to call this life, and this shows that we need to remove the blur and solidly define what life is at that basic of a level. Right now, the barrier is set at a novel evolutionary change... something brand new that evolved through natural processes.

What this is, is a set of self-replicating and self-modifying proteins. The ONLY thing preventing this from being game-set-match is the definition of life. Now this could most certainly be the precursor to life, and the observations of evolutionary mechanics within it will add a whole new chapter to science textbooks by itself. However, as defined by science all the way back to Charlie D and beyond, this cannot fall 100% under biological evolution because what we have is not biological. It *IS* an evolutionary process, make no doubts about that one, but we have to remember the lines in the sand we draw and stay within them.

This is a game changer for many things. The sheer weight of this evidence alone is a crushing blow to so-called "Intelligent" hypotheses, and should this turn into life, abiogenesis will sit beside evolution as a cornerstone of modern biology.

Time is running out for the creationists. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tik, taalik.