Sir, - Dr Reville's weekly articles are both informative and interesting. Sometimes, however, he draws on his imagination when reality must prevail. I am referring to the origin of life.
Before scientists discuss the origin of life it is only right that they should first define what it is that makes organisms tick. It is still the fashion for scientists to assume that life began in a primordial soup i.e. that the ingredients of life, which involve hundreds of enzymes and thousands of proteins, come together in a particular special configuration by chance.
Moreover, is there a shred of evidence in the fossil record to support the view that life began on earth? Charles Darwin's theory did nothing but confirm that evolution is a fact; he did not state the cause.
In my student days in London in the 1950s I had the pleasure of listening to Fred Hoyle FRS, the distinguished astronomer, describing his earlier work in California using the Palamar telescope. He confirmed, "Space was full of the stuff of life". Our planet is continually sweeping through that stuff. - Yours, etc.
Dr. Peter McCabe, Kanturk, Co Cork.