The end of creation?

[colarris]

Are the processes that first created lifeforms on this planet still continuing? Are new simple organisms sill being created in some pool water like there were millions of years ago and would we ever witness a new species evolve?

[alextemplet]

It's certainly possible. Not sure if it's ever been observed, though.

[canalon]

It is very unlikely.
Simply because there are no more nice warm pond (or deep sea vent or anything for that matter) that is not already teeming with life. The kind of life that have evolved for the last 3 or 4 billion years to use all the energy available and all chemicals that could create life. And has become extremely efficient at that little game. So if it is unlikely that any self-replicating spontaneously molecule, far from perfect as is quite likely, would survive long enough to find enough substrate to copy itself. However it will probably be used by an other life form to create its own next generation. It has been a while that the creation is finished.

[MrMistery]

While the reason provided by Canalon is definitely the main one, even if there weren't any organisms nowadays I doubt life could appear again, because our atmosphere contains a lot of oxygen, which would probably kill any proto-organisms.

[Jesse2504]

We have not currently been able to create a living entity, arguably RNA from prebiotic soup elements. We have gotten close to it but there are still major holes such as the synthesis of some nucleotide bases.

Apart from that, our planets vast amounts of life are extremely competitive and would make it difficult for such a life form to survive successfully.

[colarris]

Could it not be achieved in a controlled environment?

[canalon]

Possibly, but you will likely need to wait for a very long time to see something...

[Jesse2504]

Could it not be achieved in a controlled environment?

They have been doing this but instead of intense sunlight radiation and heat they are using electrical current to provide energy. This technique has already synthesized many organic molecules from basic elements.