Creating Life in the Lab: How New Discoveries in Synthetic Biology Make a Case for the Creator (Reasons to Believe) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Fazale Rana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2011 | Series: Reasons to Believe

Each year brings to light new scientific discoveries that have the power to either test our faith or strengthen it--most recently the news that scientists have created artificial life forms in the laboratory. If humans can create life, what does that mean for the creation story found in Scripture?

Biochemist and Christian apologist Fazale Rana, for one, isn't worried. In Creating Life in the Lab, he details the fascinating quest for synthetic life and argues convincingly that when scientists succeed in creating life in the lab, they will unwittingly undermine the evolutionary explanation for the origin of life, demonstrating instead that undirected chemical processes cannot produce a living entity.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

What does the creation of artificial life-forms mean for the Christian faith?

Each year brings to light new scientific discoveries that have the power to either test our faith or strengthen it--most recently the news that scientists have created artificial life-forms in the laboratory.

Biochemist and Christian apologist Fazale Rana, for one, isn't worried. In Creating Life in the Lab, he details the fascinating quest for synthetic life and argues convincingly that when scientists succeeded in creating life in the lab, they unwittingly undermined the evolutionary explanation for the origin of life, demonstrating instead that undirected chemical processes cannot produce a living entity.

"Like it or not, a brave new world replete with synthetic biology is now upon us. Rana's book will equip lovers of the truth to think Christianly in defense of that which corresponds to reality."--Hank Hanegraaff, president, Christian Research Institute; host, Bible Answer Man broadcast

"Beautifully details how intelligent divine planning--rather than unguided naturalistic processes--best explains the emergence of first life."--Paul Copan, professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics, Palm Beach Atlantic University; author, Is God a Moral Monster?

"As Fazale Rana puts it in his significant new contribution to the growing literature on synthetic biology, to generate, sustain, and manipulate a living entity requires the intense involvement of highly intelligent beings. Rana's analysis is achieved with clarity and scientific rigor."--Kenneth Boa, president, Reflections Ministries

"An excellent resource for understanding in detail current developments in synthetic biology and origin-of-life research."--Vern S. Poythress, professor of New Testament interpretation, Westminster Theological Seminary

Fazale Rana (PhD, Ohio University) is executive vice president of research and apologetics at Reasons To Believe. He is the author of The Cell's Design and coauthor of Origins of Life and Who Was Adam?

About the Author

Fazale Rana (PhD, Ohio University) is vice president of research and apologetics at Reasons To Believe. He is the author of The Cell's Design and coauthor, with Hugh Ross, of Origins of Life and Who Was Adam? Rana lives in Southern California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801072093
• ASIN: B0057D9F2E
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #692,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fazale (Fuz) Rana, the son of a Muslim scientist, serves as the vice president for science apologetics at Reasons To Believe. His research in biochemistry provided him with the initial evidence that life must have been created. A personal challenge daring him to read the Bible led him to the scriptural evidence that the Creator is the God of the Bible.

Fuz attended West Virginia State College (WVSC) as a Presidential Scholar. There he earned a BS degree in chemistry with honors. He completed a Ph.D. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry at Ohio University, where he twice won the Donald Clippinger Research Award. His postdoctoral studies took him to the Universities of Virginia and Georgia. Before joining Reasons To Believe, Fuz worked for seven years as a Senior Scientist in product development for Procter & Gamble.

Fuz has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Biochemistry, Applied Spectroscopy, FEBS Letters, Journal of Microbiology Methods, and The Journal of Chemical Education. He has made presentations at twenty international scientific meetings and co-authored a chapter on antimicrobial peptides for Biological and Synthetic Membranes. In addition, he holds one patent.

Today Fuz travels widely speaking on science and faith issues at churches, business firms, and universities. He also participates in the weekly webcast, Creation Update, and has made guest appearances on The John Ankerberg Show, Harvest Show, and Newsmakers (hosted by Jerry Rose on The Total Living Network). In addition, Fuz currently lectures for the Master of Science and Religion program in Christian Apologetics at Biola University.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Look at the Past and Future of Synthetic Biology January 18, 2011

By Richard L. Deem

Format:Paperback

Fazale Rana, Reasons To Believe's biochemist scholar, has written a timely book, Creating Life in the Lab, that examines human attempts to create artificial life forms in the laboratory. With Craig Venter's announcement of having created an artificial bacterium, news sources have been busy speculating what is next.

Two approaches have been taken toward creating life in the lab. The bottom-up strategy has attempted to identify biochemical pathways and self-replicating molecules that could have been involved in the formation of the first life form. The top-down strategy has attempted to identify minimal requirements for life and then synthesize the DNA required to produce that life.

Venter's group, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., set out a strategy to produce the world's first synthetic organism using a top-down approach using the "simple" bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium. Synthetic Genomics "knocked-out" individual genes to determine what genes were required for the organism to grow and reproduce. They determined that 380 of the 480 genes were essential. They synthesized pieces of the DNA, chemically linked the pieces together, then used the cellular machinery of yeasts to link the larger pieces together. Then came the hard part - getting the DNA into a cell. Actually, that process could have been much more difficult. Synthetic Genomics specifically chose a bacterium that doesn't have a cell wall. Nearly all bacteria are surrounded by a thick cell wall that protects the bacteria from damage. However, certain intracellular parasites, like Mycoplasma genitalium, lack a cell wall, which facilitates their intracellular lifestyle. However, even with the lack of a cell wall, initial attempts to transplant the foreign DNA into related Mycoplasma species failed. It turned out that these bacteria, like most other bacteria, contain endonucleases to protect the host from foreign DNA. Venter's team had to eliminate those genes from the host cell and methylate the transplanted DNA to protect it from digestion. They also used a "trick" to make the foreign DNA take over the cell. Synthetic Genomics added antibiotic resistance (tetracycline) to the foreign DNA, then grew the transplanted cells in the antibiotic. Therefore, only antibiotic resistant cells (the ones with the foreign DNA) would grow. So, the original DNA was eventually eliminated, resulting in the new bacterium, named Mycoplasma laboratorium.

The other approach to creating life in the lab involves the bottom-up strategy. This approach is exemplified by the work of origin of life researcher Jack Szostak. Szostak's research has attempted to create protocells through the design of membrane-bounded vesicles followed by the incorporation of nucleic acids and metabolic components. The approach is decidedly more difficult and requires much more intelligent design than the top-down strategy. Instead of showing that life can arise without direction, the work shows that such an approach requires much planning and significant trial and error to get the right conditions, although researchers are still far from creating a novel life form.

Another interesting section of Creating Life in the Lab is one on artificial enzymes. Biological enzymes catalyze chemical reactions, often increasing the spontaneous reaction rate by a billion times or more. Scientists have set out to produce artificial enzymes that catalyze chemical reactions not used in biological organisms. Comparing the structure of biological enzymes, scientists used super-computers to calculate the sequences of amino acids in their enzymes that might catalyze the reaction they were interested in. After testing dozens of candidates,, the best ones were chosen and subjected to "in vitro evolution," which increased the reaction rate up to 200-fold. Despite all this "intelligent design," the artificial enzymes were 10,000 to 1,000,000,000 times less efficient than their biological counterparts. Dr. Rana asks the question, "is it reasonable to think that undirected evolutionary processes routinely accomplished this task?"

The last half of of Creating Life in the Lab (chapters 7-13) examine our knowledge of possible origin of life scenarios and problems. Although covered in more detail in Dr. Rana's Origins of Life (published in 2004), these chapters update the latest studies that have attempted find a naturalistic explanation for the origin of life. These chapters include discussions of major origin of life models, including replicator first and metabolism first hypotheses. Numerous problems are discussed, including homochirality and the origin of biological membranes. Are scientists closer to a naturalistic explanation for life's origin? You will have to read the book to find out!

The epilogue ties everything together, along with Dr. Rana's predictions about what the future will hold in artificial life forms and origin of life research. How should a Christian react to such studies? Creating Life in the Lab also contains an appendix, which is a brief introduction to biochemistry and how cells function. If you have little background on the subject, you might want to start by reading the appendix so that the rest of the book makes more sense.

Creating Life in the Lab is a contemporary examination of how scientists are attempting to create artificial life in the lab. The book is a great summary of the current research in the field. It cuts through the sensationalism of the news media, while not being overly technical. It is less technical than Dr. Rana's The Cell's Design, but still requires some technical interest in biology/biochemistry for full appreciation. In a world dominated by science and technology, it is good for Christians to know what is happening on the cutting-edge of science and how it applies to Christianity.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life in the Lab Perspectives February 15, 2011

By Martin Troyer

Format:Paperback

I recently was able to obtain a copy of the new book, Creating Life in the Lab, by Fazale Rana. This book is fascinating on two levels. First, it gives a comprehensive review of the state of the art of Origin of Life research and the questions it seeks to answer, such as:

* What is Life?
* How does life operate at its most fundamental level?
* How did life begin?

I liked this quote from Origin of Life researcher Antonio Lazcano, "Life is like music; you can describe it but not define it." But the best definition I saw was "It's alive if it can die!"

Second, this book addresses the moral, philosophical, and religious worldview implications of creating life. Many people have wondered, "Will the creation of artificial and synthetic life-forms mean that there's no need for God, as the Creator?" Dr. Rana's answer is an emphatic "No!" In fact he successfully argues that this work actually provides evidence for the need for a Creator of life.

The Frankenstein quotes that preface each chapter are highly appropriate. Like Dr. Frankenstein, scientists have been obsessed with discovering nature's secrets. Now, it appears that they may be on the brink of cracking the secret of the creation of life. Some of these researchers are even trying to create "life as we don't know it". I think this is very exciting, ... and a bit scary. Will they lose control, like the good doctor, and pay a terrible price, or will we reap the blessing of these new discoveries? Only time will tell whether we meddling in the affairs of God or are just following in His footsteps.

This book describes in detail the two main Origin of Life research approaches: top-down vs. bottom-up. Top-down refers to re-engineering existing lifeforms and bottom-up involves trying to create new life by designing it from scratch. Both approaches are shown to be highly complex and involved, requiring large amounts of time and creativity to successfully execute. From the top-down approach, we have discovered the minimum complexity of a genome. This is about 380 genes, somewhere on the order of 600,000 sequenced base-pairs, that together specify the minimal instruction set required for a living organism. It defies logic to think that all this information somehow formed without any intelligent input.

The existence of an optimal, nearly universal genetic code is astonishing, given that the origin of the genetic code is estimated by Origin of Life researchers at 3.8+/-0.6 billion years ago, while the earliest life on earth is dated at 3.86 billion -- practically the same time! There is literally no time available for any evolutionary process to optimize this code, and yet it exists. The odds of this single optimal code being selected over the 10^70th possible codes is astronomical, without intervention from a Mind.

Convincingly, this book makes the case that, given the required skill, knowledge, and efforts of this endeavor, it is very unlikely that life could have formed from undirected, naturalistic processes. Dr. Rana makes a solid case that instead of providing support for an evolutionary explanation to the Origin of Life problem, we now have solid empirical evidence from the process of developing and studying life in the lab that shows that the creation of life requires intelligent input and rational design.

While this book is technical in places, it should be accessible to most educated readers who are interested in Origin of Life issues. It may push you, but it is worth the effort! This book is a great compliment to two prior books of his, Origins of Life and The Cell's Design. Dr. Fazale (Fuz) Rana has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and works with Reasons to Believe, a Christian Apologetics ministry.
The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry

Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Case for Doubting Darwinian Theory March 4, 2011

By Cecil Phillips

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This author supports the case against a long series of random chemical accidents and natural selection as the basis for the orgin and evolution of life. He argues forcefully that the sequence of chemical reactions necessary to create life is so complex that it could not possibly happen without some kind of intelligent guidance. This is the same conclusion reached by other scientists using other analytical tools,including Stephen Meyer, Richard Johnson, and Michael Behe.

However, in my opinion Rana goes too far in concluding that a supernatural entity (Creator, God) must be providing the guidance. That is not science, but literally a leap of faith. Just because science has not yet found all the answers does not mean we must give up the search. Instead, the remaining mystery should spur more vigorous and open-minded scientific research. The possibility remains that the necessary design capabilities reside within the organisms themselves, even within cells.

The book digs deeply into biochemistry, more than I could follow. I have no reason to doubt his credentials and accuracy in that field, but I would have preferred to see back-cover reviews by other scientists, not religious leaders. The amount of religious commentary in and about the book is not helpful to the credibility of Rana's chemical case.