Harvard searches for abiogenesis

[bascule]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/14/harvard_jumps_into_evolution_research_with_new_initiative/

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --Harvard is joining the long-running debate over the theory of evolution.

 

The school is launching an ambitious research project that will bring together experts from a variety of fields, including astronomy and biology, to study how life emerged on Earth.

 

Researchers hope recent scientific advances, such as the discovery of water on Mars, will help them learn more about life's origins.

 

"My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.

 

However, the project begins with an admission that some mysteries about life's origins cannot be explained.

 

"We start with a mutual acknowledgment of the profound complexity of living systems," Liu said, "(but) my expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention."

 

The researchers will receive an annual $1 million in funding from Harvard over the next few years.

 

The "Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative" is still in its early stages, scientists told the Boston Sunday Globe. Harvard has told the research team to make plans for adding faculty members and a collection of multimillion-dollar facilities.

 

Harvard isn't seen as a leader in origins of life research, but the university's vast resources could change that perception.

 

"It is quite gratifying to see Harvard is going for a solution to a problem that will be remembered 100 years from now," said Steven Benner, a University of Florida scientist who is one of the world's top chemists in origins-of-life research.

[Bill Nye Guy]

yeah go Harvard!!!!! LEts all convince the unlearned people that the smart people are right.

[rakuenso]

problem is is that there are too many unlearned people that can't even understand abstracts.