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Life In a Test Tube?
An Early Misunderstood Experiment

But have not some experiments by leading biologists demonstrated the creation of life in a test tube? No, this was only the erroneous conclusion of some reporters and writers in the news media. The reported experiments only involved the use of selected parts of living cells to perform in a test tube certain basic functions of the cell. For example, Drs. Ochoa and Kornberg mixed DNA and certain enzymes from living cells with the high-energy coupling agent, adenosine triphosphate, and the four nucleotides, A, T, C and G. They found that the DNA was duplicated.⁵²

Subsequently, Dr. Khorana was able to synthesize the DNA gene for the transfer RNA of the amino acid, alanine, in yeast cells. He then mixed this artificial gene, containing 70 nucleotide units, with the four nucleotides A, U, C and G, plus enzymes and the coupling agent. He obtained tRNA identical with that produced in yeast cells.⁵³

It is plain that neither of these experiments produced life in a test tube. They merely duplicated outside of the cell basic processes which living cells carry on all the time. Furthermore, patterns and enzymes found in living cells were used. Moreover, these two processes are just two out of many thousands of chemical processes that are necessary for the life of a cell. Reexamine the diagram of figure 4-10 which gives a highly simplified picture of just a small fraction of the chemical processes required for the transmission of the life of a cell to the two daughter cells resulting from cell division. Since the early work of Ochoa, Kornberg, Khorana and others, hundreds of scientists have pushed forward the frontier of molecular biology in the fast-developing field of genetic engineering. Specific cell processes have been exported from cells to manufacturing plants. Complex biochemical processes are even being modified to achieve specific human goals. This is marvelous and beneficial for mankind. Nevertheless, life has yet to be produced in a test tube and there is no reason to believe that it ever will be. It is amazing how many people have been deceived during the past several decades by incompetent news reporting and science fiction into believing that life has been created in a testtube. Let this teach us to beware of mass media reporting about origin of life research. And may it also teach Christians to test all things by the Scriptures.

References

52. Kornberg, Arthur, Scientific American, Vol. 219, Oct. 1968, pp. 64-78.

53. "Biochemists Mimic Genetic Reactions," Chemical and Engineering News, 20 April 1970, pp. 46-48; "Scientists Synthesize a Gene," ibid., 8 June 1970, pp. 9-10.