Theoretical origin of life; high viscosity goo? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 10, 2016, 19:57 (2745 days ago) @ David Turell

Starting with some RNA or DNA goo seems to help them continue to develop. Pie in the sky. Where did the RNA/DNA come from? -https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161010120136.htm-"A little goo will do to get RNA and DNA to progress toward self-replication. Could some abundant ingredient have helped the precursors of genes become life molecules? Another indicator that little drama may have been necessary in chemical evolution. -***-"Earliest life was based on RNA, or a similar polymer, according to a hypothesis called the RNA World. In that scenario, on the evolutionary timeline, the self-replication of RNA strands long enough to be potential genes would roughly mark the doorstep to life.-"Those long nucleotide chains may have been mixed together in puddles with shorter nucleotide chains. Heat from the sun would have made long strands detach from their helix structures, giving short ones a chance to match up with them, and become their copies. But there's a problem.-"In water alone, when cooling sets in, the long chains snap back into their helix structure so rapidly that there's no time for the matching process with the shorter chains. That snapping shut, which happens in both RNA and DNA, is called "strand inhibition," and in living cells, enzymes solve the problem of keeping the long chains apart while gene strands duplicate.-***-"He and Gállego's use of a naturally occurring gene, rather than a specifically engineered sequence, shows that viscosity could have been a very general solution to promote copying of nucleic acids with mixed length and sequences.
To facilitate quick, clear outcomes, the Georgia Tech researchers used purified short nucleotide chains and applied them in ratios that favored productive reactions. But they had started out with messier, less pure ingredients, and the experience was worthwhile.-***-"The viscous solvent was glycholine, a mixture of glycerol and choline chloride. It was not likely present on pre-biotic Earth, but other viscous solvents likely were.
Also, after the short strands matched up to each long one, the researchers did apply an enzyme to join the aligned short pieces into a long chain, in a biochemical process called ligation. (my bold)-"The enzymes would not have been present on a prebiotic Earth, and although there are chemical procedure for ligating RNA, "no one has developed a chemistry so robust yet that it could replace the enzyme," Grover said."-Comment: Again intelligent design in a lab, starting with RNA or DNA, adding a goo and an enzyme. Viscous goo may have been present in sea bottoms where life probably started, but RNA/DNA and enzymes did not exist. Not an explanation for start of life.