James Tour's Series on Abiogenesis

So I got a notification about this promo video for Tour’s series on abiogenesis yesterday

Today, I got a notification for this video clip from Peaceful Science.

Clever marketing? Just a coincidence? :slight_smile:

So it will be interesting to see if Tour covers the idea of the most primitive cell as @swamidass mentions.

I’d also be interested if anyone wants to critique the series after it’s complete.

Actually, it’s just a coincidence. I didn’t even know the team was putting that out!

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I figured but it was fun to imagine.

What could Tour possibly have to say that needs to be spread out into a series?
Just one episode after another dedicated to the topics:
Episode 1: How did X?
Episode 2: I don’t know.
Episode 3: They don’t know.
Episode 4: Nobody knows, they’re clueless.
Episode 5: If you don’t know everything, then you don’t know anything.
Episode 6: I make tiny cars and it’s hard.
Episode 7: All I ever talk about is Jack Szostak and John Sutherland’s work on the chemical synthesis of RNA, but I have no idea about the relevance or context of RNA to life’s origin because one problem is I never talk about what exactly life is and thus where in some series of events one might say we should consider it to have begun.
Episode 8: They buy the chemicals instead of wishing them into existence, that’s cheating. Where were the chemical stores 4 billion years ago? Checkmate!
Episode 9: My fans think mine and other people’s ignorance indicates the impossibility of life’s origin.
Episode 10: Scientists exaggerate the results of their research in the popular press in the origin of life field too, so something about a Big Darwinist Conspiracy in science.
Episode 11: I actually don’t know anything about the literature on very early evolution or evidence from very early periods in the history of life, nor do I know anything about phylogenetic comparative methods, the tree of life, or general natural history, nor evidence for endosymbiotic theory, so I will frequently pose questions about “where did X come from” speaking of eukaryotic characters and attributes as if these had to have come into existence at the origin of life.

In season 2 we take turns saying “oohh” and “ahhh” when looking at complex things in life.

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I think Dr. Tour should watch his coffee intake.

You could share how you really feel. :neutral_face: Watch the video he’s responding to. You were complimentary by comparison.

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