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This is one of the most well-crafted and concise instructional videos I've seen in a long time; it's about chemical evolution -- a concept which is new to me.
We have had a lot of conversations about abiogenesis before. That word is not used here even by way of contrast or comparison with chemical evolution. It would appear to be an alternative theory to bridge the gap from non-living things to living things. It would also appear that there is a scientific organization devoted to pursuing this line of inquiry. Sounds very interesting and promising.
The short version is that the reproduction in living systems is replaced by "repetitive production" in chemical systems -- based on natural cycles and rhythms in nature, most of which are directly or indirectly based upon day / night cycles.
I commend this video as worth 9 minutes of your time, and would be interested in your reactions and comments to it.
Hang on...let me fill me pipe, light up and watch.
....Lots to do yet.
"In the final step of chemical evolution, protobionts developed the ability to reproduce and pass genetic information from one generation to the next. Some scientists theorize RNA to be the original hereditary molecule. Short polymers of RNA have been synthesized abiotically in the laboratory. In the 1980s, Thomas Cech and his associates at the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that RNA molecules can function as enzymes in cells. This implies that RNA molecules could have replicated in prebiotic cells without the use of protein enzymes. Variations of RNA molecules could have been produced by mutations and by errors during replication. Natural selection, operating on the different RNAs would have brought about subsequent evolutionary development. This would have fostered the survival of RNA sequences best suited to environmental parameters, such as temperature and salt concentration. As the protobionts grew and split, their RNA was passed on to offspring. In time, a diversity of prokaryote cells came into existence. Under the influence of natural selection, the prokaryotes could have given rise to the vast variety of life on Earth."
I recall an interesting lecture on how Thermodynamics can serve as a form of selector - like natural selection - to drive chemical evolution. We get to RNA easily enough. But we need an explanation to show how that produced DNA. When this has been done and proven in a laboratory, in fact life from non -life would be demonstrated.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 05-13-2015 at 12:28 PM..
We get to RNA easily enough. But we need an explanation to show how that produced DNA. When this has been done and proven in a laboratory, in fact life from non -life would be demonstrated.
It is pretty compelling, though of course not definitive, that rather life-like structures and characteristics can evolve in this way, even short of RNA. It would be unsurprising to see a mechanism discovered that could get us to DNA. However reproducing it in the lab might be rather impractical, as vast amounts of time would likely be required and unless dumb luck favors the researchers, one might have to construct a lot of rather expensive machinery to simulate the appropriate conditions for generations before one sees results, much less reproduces them. Particularly beyond the question of vested interests. I can see it now: well this project was begun 78 years ago and in that time the plumbing must have become contaminated from the outside. Or someone must have tipped the scales or tweaked the results. Or the whole thing is flawed and playing god and besides, god.
So I'm not holding my breath that this is going to produce a definitive answer in my lifetime or even my children's, but it nevertheless is fascinating to see a demonstrable mechanism that's heading in the right direction -- as they say in the video, toward more complex rather than simpler chemistry, given the right conditions and enough time.
Well, the hadron collider was built, and there were some panic -stricken voices saying that we were tinkering with wot we ought not.
The research going on will prove this chemical evolution hypothesis or not. As that excellent series of you tubes showed in one effort, scientific research debunked Cold fusion - as distinct from teaching both claims in the science -class.
In five years, the USA itself might be in a position - with some better knowledge - to try to prove that last unproven. RNA to DNA.
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