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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

"As I felt that his case was sound, I took up this cause and extended the arguments against prebiotic synthesis."

It sounds like maybe Shapiro himself had more to say about prebiotic synthesis than about Cairns-Smith's idea.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Here's a good set of links to articles criticizing science for close-mindedness, by self-described "crackpot" Bill Beatty:

http://amasci.com/weird/wclose.html

I can't help feeling though, as I scan down his list, that the sheer number and variety of issues for which supporters complain about being ignored by mainstream science somewhat undercuts the position. Even if you are sympathetic to some of these unorthodox views, you are probably going to be skeptical about others. By combining them in one list it tars the more credible ones with the bad reputation of the others.

BTW with regard to Cairns-Smith, I sometimes wonder if the non-mainstream study of nanobacteria (sometimes spelled nannobacteria) might be related. These are spherical particles found in a variety of organic and inorganic environments that show signs of being able to reproduce, but are far too small to contain the cellular machinery necessary for biological reproduction as we know it. Skeptics charge that nanobacteria are merely inorganic crystals that "reproduce" via ordinary crystal growth processes. Cairns-Smith's idea was that even this kind of inorganic reproduction could be subject to natural selection and evolution, leading to inorganic life.

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