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Scientists think they've found the origin of all earthly life
OP Comment: Evolution is a controversial issue among Muslims and I know many may shy away from science believing it is an attack on our faith. But I disagree with this outlook. I believe in Islam and I also accept the current evidence science can provide as long as it is backed by strong rigor. As Muslims, there is no threat to our values, religion or faith by what science has presented, whether we agree or not/ Our Qur'an is filled with as much allegory as it is with commands, advice and explanations. Science can never surpass the supernatural with its methods of falsifiability and experiment as it is a method based on the events of natural physical phenomena. The allegories of the Qur'an can be explained many different ways, what is the intended meaning Allah knows best, but we should bear in mind that they can be broad enough to encompass what science reveals without necessarily proclaiming those meanings as decisive. Once again Allah knows Best. Rather than view new knowledge as a challenge to Islam, we should see science and what it reveals as something that enhances our faith
OP Comment: Evolution is a controversial issue among Muslims and I know many may shy away from science believing it is an attack on our faith. But I disagree with this outlook. I believe in Islam and I also accept the current evidence science can provide as long as it is backed by strong rigor. As Muslims, there is no threat to our values, religion or faith by what science has presented, whether we agree or not/ Our Qur'an is filled with as much allegory as it is with commands, advice and explanations. Science can never surpass the supernatural with its methods of falsifiability and experiment as it is a method based on the events of natural physical phenomena. The allegories of the Qur'an can be explained many different ways, what is the intended meaning Allah knows best, but we should bear in mind that they can be broad enough to encompass what science reveals without necessarily proclaiming those meanings as decisive. Once again Allah knows Best. Rather than view new knowledge as a challenge to Islam, we should see science and what it reveals as something that enhances our faith
WAY BACK WHEN
Scientists think they've found the origin of all earthly life
Four billion years ago, sometime around Earth's 560 millionth birthday, Luca was born.
Luca is your great-to-an-infinite-degree grandmother and grandfather, as it is your dog's and your goldfish's and your ficus'. Every living thing on Earth owes it existence to Luca, whose very name stands for "Last Universal Common Ancestor." It is the origin of life on Earth, from which the rest of us evolved. And now scientists believe they have mapped a genetic picture of the qualities that would have belonged to Luca, giving us a startling look at how life on Earth might have begun:
...By comparing their sequence of DNA letters, genes can be arranged in evolutionary family trees, a property that enabled [Dr. William F.] Martin and his colleagues to assign the six million genes to a much smaller number of gene families. Of these, only 355 met their criteria for having probably originated in Luca, the joint ancestor of bacteria and archaea.
Genes are adapted to an organism's environment. So Dr. Martin hoped that by pinpointing the genes likely to have been present in Luca, he would also get a glimpse of where and how Luca lived. "I was flabbergasted at the result, I couldn't believe it," he said.
The 355 genes pointed quite precisely to an organism that lived in the conditions found in deep sea vents, the gassy, metal-laden, intensely hot plumes caused by seawater interacting with magma erupting through the ocean floor. [The New York Times]
Chemist John Sutherland, of the University of Cambridge, has a rival theory that life formed in shallow pools, not the ocean. Others say that Dr. Martin's version of Luca is actually the sophisticated descendent of some other original Luca.
But regardless of which theory you believe, as James O. McInerney wrote in a commentary about Dr. Martin's research, Luca is "a very intriguing insight into life four billion years ago." Read all about it at The New York Times. Jeva Lange
Scientists think they've found the origin of all earthly life
Four billion years ago, sometime around Earth's 560 millionth birthday, Luca was born.
Luca is your great-to-an-infinite-degree grandmother and grandfather, as it is your dog's and your goldfish's and your ficus'. Every living thing on Earth owes it existence to Luca, whose very name stands for "Last Universal Common Ancestor." It is the origin of life on Earth, from which the rest of us evolved. And now scientists believe they have mapped a genetic picture of the qualities that would have belonged to Luca, giving us a startling look at how life on Earth might have begun:
...By comparing their sequence of DNA letters, genes can be arranged in evolutionary family trees, a property that enabled [Dr. William F.] Martin and his colleagues to assign the six million genes to a much smaller number of gene families. Of these, only 355 met their criteria for having probably originated in Luca, the joint ancestor of bacteria and archaea.
Genes are adapted to an organism's environment. So Dr. Martin hoped that by pinpointing the genes likely to have been present in Luca, he would also get a glimpse of where and how Luca lived. "I was flabbergasted at the result, I couldn't believe it," he said.
The 355 genes pointed quite precisely to an organism that lived in the conditions found in deep sea vents, the gassy, metal-laden, intensely hot plumes caused by seawater interacting with magma erupting through the ocean floor. [The New York Times]
Chemist John Sutherland, of the University of Cambridge, has a rival theory that life formed in shallow pools, not the ocean. Others say that Dr. Martin's version of Luca is actually the sophisticated descendent of some other original Luca.
But regardless of which theory you believe, as James O. McInerney wrote in a commentary about Dr. Martin's research, Luca is "a very intriguing insight into life four billion years ago." Read all about it at The New York Times. Jeva Lange