Is it possible to make life from scratch using just its raw materials? The elements and molecules needed for life are well know and can be made in a laboratory setting.  And we are told that life "formed" long ago based on standard chemistry.  Well, it turns out that making synthetic life is not so easy after all. But if it was easy for random chance and basic chemistry to produce life originally, then why is it so hard for highly intelligent and experienced researchers to produce synthetic life on purpose?  Uplook Magazine November-December 2008;, p.18.   References:  P Barry, "Life From Scratch," Science News Online, vol. 173, no.2 (week of Jan. 12, 2008), http://www.sciencenews.org/ ;  M. Madiagan and J. Martinko,  Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 11th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005).  J.C. Lennox,  God's Undertaker:  Has Science Buried God? (Oxford, England: Lion, 2007).