Bet 195

Duration 16 years (02005-02020)

“A March 2004 article stated: "More than 3.5 billion years after nature transformed non-living matter into living things, populating Earth with a cornucopia of animals and plants, scientists say they are finally ready to try their hand at creating life. . . It is a dream long pursued by scientists who now believe that it may be possible to create the first artificial unit of life in the next 5 to 10 years." See: http://www.deeperwants.com/cul1/homeworlds/journal/archives/002191.html

My prediction is that artificial life; i.e., life from non-life, will not be created in a laboratory.”

PREDICTOR
Rodney T Small

CHALLENGER
Unchallenged

Small's Argument

It has been 52 years since the famous Urey/Miller experiment at the U. of Chicago created amino acids -- the building blocks of life -- from non-living matter. However, despite the article's claims and the enormous technlogical progress since 1953, I see no evidence that scientists are any closer today to creating life than they were in 1953. This process seems to me to be so complex and mysterious as to be beyond mankind's ability.

Challenge Small!

Challenge Rodney T Small to a bet on this prediction!