Harvard to Investigate Origins of Life

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Harvard to Investigate Origins of Life - News

 

http://news./s/ap/20050816/ap_on_sc/harvard_evolution

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard University is joining the long-running debate over

the theory of evolution by launching a research project to study how life began.

 

The team of researchers will receive $1 million in funding annually from Harvard

over the next few years. The project begins with an admission that some

mysteries about life's origins cannot be explained.

 

"My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series

of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," said

David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.

 

The "Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative" is still in its early stages,

scientists told the Boston Sunday Globe. Harvard has told the research team to

make plans for adding faculty members and a collection of multimillion-dollar

facilities.

 

Evolution is a fundamental scientific theory that species evolved over millions

of years. It has been standard in most public school science texts for decades

but recently re-emerged in the spotlight as communities and some states debated

whether school children should also be taught about creationism or intelligent

design.

 

The theory of intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have

developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand

in creation.

 

Harvard has not been seen as a leader in origins of life research, but the

university's vast resources could change that perception.

 

"It is quite gratifying to see Harvard is going for a solution to a problem that

will be remembered 100 years from now," said Steven Benner, a University of

Florida scientist who is one of the world's top chemists in origins-of-life

research.