Thread: Simplest living machine

What is the simplest living machine? I was watching an interesting TV show that debated evolution vs creationism. I usually would have turned the channel fairly quickly but this had an interesting twist. There was a very simple living organism that was made up of just a few parts. This simple machine was super efficient in doing whatever it needed to do ( converting food into energy or something ).

The debate was about breaking down this organism into something more basic. In theory if any one of the parts of this organism was removed the machine would not be usable thus "proving" that it could not have evolved from anything else.

Does anyone know more about this? Or the TV show that I watched? OR the name of the organism?

Probably the motor tail on a sperm cell.

Maybe not, but it's just a guess. I would imagine white blood cells are pretty darn efficient, as well.

Probably talking about viruses. Dunno.

Wondering about how life might have originated, I have imagined a self-replicating molecule getting stuck in a lipid bubble and finding that the bubble was permeable enough to let in the component parts of the molecule but not let in larger molecules that might break the molecule. As the molecule replicates the bubble splits but does not break - presto! evolutionary advantage.
No "life" yet, though, just a greatly increased chance of beneficial mutation (over time) being preserved.
A proto midiclorian - sorry - mitochondrion.