And man said "Let there be bugs" and there were bugs.

in the 19th century, amateur scientist Andrew Crosse was able to create living, moving bugs from nothing more than water, silicates, and an electrical current. He ensured that these were not being spawned by ordinary biological means, and reproduced the experiment many many times. Michael Faraday even found it necessary to reproduce the experiment. These bugs had a full-detailed insect anatomy; intricate mouths, anus, hairs, and internals. Furthermore, they avoided the sun, just like many insects do via phototaxis. These bugs were even identified as being in the genus "acarus" due to morphological similarity. This sounds unbelievable, but from what I have researched on the topic it seems to be true:

www.rexresearch.com...
^READ THIS contains experimental procedure for spawning these bugs, and letters between Crosse and the scientific community at the time

www.cheniere.org...
^contains supplement information to the link above it.

"Andrew Crosse: early nineteenth-century amateur of electrical science" (1993)
"Andrew Crosse: Electrical pioneer" (1934)
^a few old peer-reviewed articles that mention his name directly

"Creation of life through electricity" (2009)
which summarized the experiment (I don't have access to the full article or I would have posted the results of this reproduction): 'set up an experiment where he passed a current from a voltaic cell through a solution of potassium silicate and hydrochloric acid that was set dripping over a porous stone of red iron oxide. The stone was kept electrified by platinum wires coupled to a small voltaic battery. Crosse observed a few small whitish specks clustered around the middle of the electrified stone on the fourteenth day. The specks had doubled in size and had struck out six or eight fine filaments around each speck after four days. He observed on 26th day that the objects had assumed the form of perfect insects, standing erect on the bristles which they were growing, and on the 28th day, the objects were moving their legs'

So, A human doing a guess-and-check experiment was able to generate animated life from silicate, water and electricity. I want to emphasize one point before I conclude: The earth's crust is 70% silicate crystal (SiO2)

a reply to: cooperton

ATS has gotten some very interesting topics posted today, this being one of them

You have certainly given me a lot to think about..is it possible that we were created quite literally out of thin air ? I mean you add energy (electricity) and the current composition of our planet over a very long period of time..or perhaps we are product of intelligent design.

If this is true and the Earth's crust is 70% silicate and 70% water, all that would be needed is a lightning storm and voila! Life is formed. No invisible man in the sky needed.

I wonder if there really is something to Zeus being depicted with lightning? Electricity is what powers our brains as well. Electricity creates life!

S&F

a reply to: cooperton

This may quickly get thrown into the grey area, which are my favourite topics here on ATS

Electricity, which travels at the speed of light, is a manifestation of electromagnetic radiation. light is also electromagnetic radiation. as 3nl1ght3n3d reminded us, our brains work via electricity as well, and we even have a literal inner-light via the emission of particles which are called "biophotons". It is no wonder that light has been deified by so many cultures.

@threeeyesopen yesss, I'm hoping to see a bunch of thought-provoking comments when I wake up tomorrow

Maybe we are the embodiment of intelligence that resides in this great organic vessel we call earth. Computer chips are made of SiO2, maybe we're essentially on a big computer chip of intelligence that created life to express its consciousness

Nice thread..i am already starting my shopping list. Everything is readily available.

If I wake up covered in bed bugs, I'm gunnin for a refund!

a reply to: cooperton

Electricity, which travels at the speed of light, is a manifestation of electromagnetic radiation.

Yes as below .

Electricity and light are both forms of ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION (ER) and all ER travels at the same speed of 300,000. km/second

How many miles per second is 300000 km/s ????

Radio waves, radar, microwaves, light, gamma rays and X rays are all forms of ER and they all travel at " the speed of light"

But then this .

Light travels through empty space at 186,000 miles per second. The electricity which flows through the wires in your homes and appliances travels much slower:
only about 1/100 th the speed of light. Part of the reason is that light is massless; it has no weight, whereas the electricity flowing in the wires is made up of a stream of electrons, all of which have some small amount of weight. In addition, the electrons flowing through the wires constantly bump into the atoms of the wire, which slows them down considerably. If you were to take the electrons out of the wire and make them flow through space (which is essentially what you do when you make a spark), they can move faster, but no matter what, they cannot move as fast light.

Still an interesting thread OP .

Well its on the internet it must be true
I can understand why they never repeated the experiment, scientists just like debating creation and evolution so much they ignored this amazing proof.

a reply to: borntowatch

Proof of?

Great idea for debate but it won't be true. If it was it would have been replicated officially. Sounds like a fraud or contaminated sample

originally posted by: borntowatch
Well its on the internet it must be true
I can understand why they never repeated the experiment, scientists just like debating creation and evolution so much they ignored this amazing proof.

Proof of what? That life can arise naturally in the universe given certain conditions? Doesn't that disprove God? A little bit more about this guy.
THE ANDREW CROSSE EXPERIMENT

Unfortunately, besides the Society, newspapers quickly caught on to the story, calling this new insect Acarus Crossii and inflamed the populace into a frenzy. Crosse was labelled a blasphemer, a devil, a mere man who dared to make himself equal to the creator God by seemingly creating life out of nothing. People would flood his neghborhood to mock his work, to damage his property, or to perform exorcisms outside his home.

He would later defend himself as being equally ignorant about his own experiments and what they meant: “In fact, I assure you most sacredly that I have never dreamed of any theory sufficient to account for (the insects’) appearance. I confess that I was not a little surprised, and am so still, and quite as much as I was when the (insects) first made their appearance…. I was looking for (crystal) formations, and (insects) appeared instead….”

Other scientists would replicate the experiment and come to the same result, but they were not the target of the abuse Crosse suffered.

Looks to me like the religious crowd buried his experiment and not so much other scientists (who tried to replicate his results). As for this guy and his experiment, I don't know what to say. I need to research more about him. It should be noted that Crosse NEVER claimed that he created these insects. He just assumed that they were dust mites and it was due to some contamination.

Andrew Crosse - Controvery

Crosse did not claim that he had created the insects. He assumed that there were insect eggs embedded in his samples. Later commentators agreed that the insects were probably cheese mites or dust mites that had contaminated Crosse's instruments.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
Proof of what? That life can arise naturally in the universe given certain conditions? Doesn't that disprove God? A little bit more about this guy.
THE ANDREW CROSSE EXPERIMENT

Unfortunately, besides the Society, newspapers quickly caught on to the story, calling this new insect Acarus Crossii and inflamed the populace into a frenzy. Crosse was labelled a blasphemer, a devil, a mere man who dared to make himself equal to the creator God by seemingly creating life out of nothing. People would flood his neighborhood to mock his work, to damage his property, or to perform exorcisms outside his home.

He would later defend himself as being equally ignorant about his own experiments and what they meant: “In fact, I assure you most sacredly that I have never dreamed of any theory sufficient to account for (the insects’) appearance. I confess that I was not a little surprised, and am so still, and quite as much as I was when the (insects) first made their appearance…. I was looking for (crystal) formations, and (insects) appeared instead….”

Other scientists would replicate the experiment and come to the same result, but they were not the target of the abuse Crosse suffered.

Looks to me like the religious crowd buried his experiment and not so much other scientists (who tried to replicate his results). As for this guy and his experiment, I don't know what to say. I need to research more about him. It should be noted that Crosse NEVER claimed that he created these insects. He just assumed that they were dust mites and it was due to some contamination.

Andrew Crosse - Controvery

Crosse did not claim that he had created the insects. He assumed that there were insect eggs embedded in his samples. Later commentators agreed that the insects were probably cheese mites or dust mites that had contaminated Crosse's instruments.

So whats your point, you turning this into a religious bashing exercise again, wow no surprise there.
Yes some religious people are as fundamentalist as some atheists, get over it.

Its an interesting title and seems baseless scientifically

I think it sounds ridiculous and have found no valid evidence. Interesting story nonetheless.

If it was true then I would have to accept evolution, prove it true and you win.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
If this is true and the Earth's crust is 70% silicate and 70% water, all that would be needed is a lightning storm and voila! Life is formed. No invisible man in the sky needed.

I wonder if there really is something to Zeus being depicted with lightning? Electricity is what powers our brains as well. Electricity creates life!

S&F

the "spark of life" as per mary shelley.

originally posted by: borntowatch

You brought up the evolution/creation debate not me. I showed that you are wrong and that scientists HAVE tried to replicate his results and test his experiment.

a reply to: borntowatch

If it was true then I would have to accept evolution, prove it true and you win.

Is this why you don't even try to consider it and just immediately label it a hoax? Because it would somehow validate evolution and prove your faith wrong?

Change isn't that bad of a thing you know. Sometimes change can be for the better.

a reply to: borntowatch

Read Genesis 1:1-2

First is the earth (silicate, check) and the earth has a magnetic field, every magnetic field is ALWAYS accompanied by electromagnetic radiation (electricity, check). In Genesis 1:2 water is explicitly mentioned (water, check). If you're not convinced by the electricity in Genesis 1:1, Light is the first thing mentioned in Genesis 1:3, which is undoubtedly related to electromagnetic radiation/electricity.

All 3 conditions that were done in this experiment were present by Genesis 1:3

I think what atheists fail to see, is that God is not some man hanging out in the cosmos with a long white beard. God is internal, the Great Animating Factor. Humans are the expression.

I am so sorry that you have to persist with this nonsense, nonsense in the fact it has no evidence.

Grow up, its not science, its hocus pocus and faith, want to buy some special oil I have, it will help you lose weight, heal your illness and make you smarter, $10 per bottle, shipping is extra?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

are there any more modern repeats of this experiment?

a reply to: TzarChasm

I don't think so. I could barely find the information I did find. It looks to me like the story goes that Crosse was just screwing around with electricity in his personal lab (he appeared to be a trust fund kid who really liked science) one day when after shocking a rock he found bugs on it. Crosse said, "hey that's strange." Then he reported his findings to the scientific community. He didn't once say that he created life though. He said that he did some stuff and this was the result, can anyone duplicate his results. So a few tried and did duplicate the results. Then they used better sterilization methods and determined that the rocks weren't sterilized before usage and the bugs were likely from an outside source.

During this whole situation, the religious crowd heard about this story and went ballistic. The demonized the man, who again never claimed to have created life, to no end. He appeared to get the sole brunt of the ire as well, all other scientists who duplicated his results appeared to do so in obscurity. Then eventually science determined what was really going on and no one has attempted the experiment since because there is no need.

This story is more an example of religious overreaction to science than a pseudo-science topic or anything.

originally posted by: cooperton
Electricity, which travels at the speed of light, is a manifestation of electromagnetic radiation. light is also electromagnetic radiation. as 3nl1ght3n3d reminded us, our brains work via electricity as well, and we even have a literal inner-light via the emission of particles which are called "biophotons". It is no wonder that light has been deified by so many cultures.

So, subjectively (could be a more than just a maybe) plausible (hopefully) the FINAL answer to the question "What Animates Inanimate Matter" (spark of life) IS Electromagnetic Radiation.