Theoretical origin of life; more lab fun (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 20, 2017, 00:58 (2403 days ago) @ David Turell

The article says it takes a 40 base RNA to replicate. Somehow or other it fell together on early rocky Earth:

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-complex-life-evolved-chance-coupling.html

"In this world, billions of years ago, nothing existed that we would recognise today as living. The world contained only lifeless molecules that formed spontaneously through the natural chemical and physical processes on Earth.

"However, the moment that small molecules connected and formed larger molecules with the ability to replicate themselves, life started to evolve.

"'Life was a chance event, there is no doubt about that," says Dr Pierre Durand from the Evolution of Complexity Laboratory in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, who led a project to find out how exactly these molecules linked up with each other. Their results are published today in the journal Royal Society Open Science, in a paper entitled "Molecular trade-offs in RNA ligases affected the modular emergence of complex ribozymes at the origin of life".

"Very simple ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (compounds similar to Deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA)) can join other RNA molecules to themselves though a chemical reaction called ligation. The random joining together of different pieces or RNA could give rise to a group of molecules able to produce copies of themselves and so kick start the process of life.
 
"While the process that eventually led to the evolution of life took place over a long period of time, and involved a number of steps, Wits PhD student Nisha Dhar and Durand have uncovered how one of these crucial steps may have occurred. (my bold)

"They have demonstrated how small non-living molecules may have given rise to larger molecules that were capable of reproducing themselves. This path to self-replicating molecules was a key event for life to take hold. 

"'Something needed to happen for these small molecules to interact and form longer, more complex molecules and that happened completely by chance," says Durand."

Comment: A declarative statement that life had to be accidental, yet my bold shows the truth. The certainty of atheism. Same old lab story that manufactured molecules must have happened by chance.