Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 8/31/2010

Question
hi there,
considering that life on earth thrives on this planet today, as opposed to when life first came about, are there any examples of life actually being created today?
Thanks and regards,
Jon.

Answer
Dear Jon,

So far, no one has actually created a living cell from non-living materials.  But Miller and Urey duplicated the conditions of the primordial earth to demonstrate how biological macromolecules could have formed (in the absence of oxygen, which was vanishingly rare in the early earth's atmosphere).  Others, such as Alexandr Oparin, showed how these molecules could conglomerate to make cell-like structures where biochemical reactions could take place.

Considering we've been at this for less than 100 years, and the earth had billions of years to get it "right," I'd say that's pretty good.  :)

You may have heard about this story:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2010-05-21-genome21_ST_N.htm

in which scientists created a bacterium from human DNA.  But I don't think that really counts as "creating life" because the raw materials came from living things.

Hope that helps.

Dana