Both creationist and intelligent design writers assert that
science has yet to understand the origin of life, and further
claim that this is a fatal flaw in evolutionary theory
[Behe1996; Dembski1998]. It is true that as of the present time,
scientists do not yet fully understand biogenesis (as the origin
of life is often termed). In particular, the origin of the first
self-reproducing biomolecules, on which evolutionary processes
could operate to produce more complicated systems, remains
unknown. But numerous discoveries have been made in the area,
including some rather striking results just in the past year or
two. Biogenesis from 1950 to 2000 The first major result in the
field of biogenesis was a 1953 experiment by Stanley Miller and
Harold Urey. In this experiment, the researchers tested an
earlier hypothesis that conditions on the early earth may have
favored the synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic
compounds. They placed water plus some gases in a sealed flask,
then passed electric sparks thro