Harvard researches the theory of evolution

Harvard University is joining the long-running debate over the theory of evolution by launching a research project to study how life began.

The team of researchers will receive $1m in funding annually from Harvard over the next few years. The project begins with an admission that some mysteries about life's origins cannot be explained.

"My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," David R Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard, was quoted as saying by News24.

The "Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative" is still in its early stages, scientists told the Boston Sunday Globe. Harvard has told the research team to make plans for adding faculty members and a collection of multimillion-dollar facilities.

However, the project begins with an admission that some mysteries about life's origins cannot be explained.

"We start with a mutual acknowledgment of the profound complexity of living systems," Liu said, "(but) my expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention."

Harvard isn't seen as a leader in origins of life research, but the university's vast resources could change that perception, AP informs.

"It is quite gratifying to see Harvard is going for a solution to a problem that will be remembered 100 years from now," Steven Benner, a University of Florida scientist who is one of the world's top chemists in origins-of-life research, was quoted as saying by AP.

Photo by Daily news.