Radio Shows
2025
LA Catholic Morning Radio Interview Archives
Topic: Chemically-Generated Life
Can Chemistry Be Used to Create Biological Systems with Metabolism, Replication and Compartmentalization? Todd, Ellen and Father Tad discuss a new initiative by European scientists to create simple forms of life from scratch in the lab in the next 6 years. Starting with inanimate chemicals, the researchers would like to produce metabolically active entities that grow, divide and show “Darwinian evolution” within six years. The €13mn “MiniLife” project, which is funded by the European Research Council is striving to become the first in the world to reach the minimum criteria for a synthetic living system. Father Tad discusses the 1952 Miller–Urey experiment that produced amino acids from a mixture of gases, and reviews the efforts of Craig Venter in 2010 to create novel living entities by modifying the genetics of bacteria. He argues that the likelihood of the MiniLife project succeeding, especially in 6 years time, seems very small, particularly in light of the complexity of even the most basic living systems like bacteria, and the herculean challenges involved in replicating such systems.
Broadcast Date: January 15, 2025
___________________________________