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+--- Thread: Research How did life on Earth begin? The chemical puzzle just became clearer. (/thread-15521.html)
How did life on Earth begin? The chemical puzzle just became clearer. - C C - Mar 1, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/02/29/life-earth-origin-chemistry/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA5MTgyODAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzEwNTYxNTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDkxODI4MDAsImp0aSI6Ijg0Y2JmNWJjLTJjYTQtNGRkMC05NjlmLWViZmUwNTk2Zjk2NyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LzIwMjQvMDIvMjkvbGlmZS1lYXJ0aC1vcmlnaW4tY2hlbWlzdHJ5LyJ9.hfev7MFvH_p2fPSFFubtL68T0_QbIeLMkEsR-b4JKLA
INTRO: People have long scratched their heads trying to understand how life ever got going after the formation of Earth billions of years ago. Now, chemists have partly unlocked the recipe by creating a complex compound essential to all life — in a lab.
Like making the ingredients of a cake, researchers have successfully created a compound critical for metabolism in all living cells, which is essential for energy production and regulation. The pathway, which has evaded scientists for decades, involved relatively simple molecules probably present on early Earth that combined at room temperature over months.
The discovery provides support to the idea that many key components for life could have simultaneously formed early on and combined to make living cells.
“Why do we have life? Why do the rules of chemistry mean life here looks the way it does?” said Matthew Powner, senior author of the research paper. These are “just the most fantastic questions we could possibly answer.”
[...] he new lab experiment focused on the origins of another primary metabolite: coenzyme A, which sits at the heart of metabolism across all domains of life (as one of its many functions)...
[...] The simple recipe for such a complex-looking molecule could reimagine how life started on Earth. Historically, Powner said, scientists proposed that biological molecules appeared stepwise — like an early world of RNA that later gave rise to proteins and other chemicals.
But the new discovery shows that many of life’s building blocks could have been created simultaneously from the same basic chemicals and conditions, producing proteins, RNA and other components at once... (MORE - missing details)
RE: How did life on Earth begin? The chemical puzzle just became clearer. - Magical Realist - Mar 2, 2024
Quote:But the new discovery shows that many of life’s building blocks could have been created simultaneously from the same basic chemicals and conditions, producing proteins, RNA and other components at once.
Interesting development. I suspect that there is a guiding principle in the universe for certain important events to happen. A proto-telic synchrony of disparate conditions coming together to make the extraordinary property of life/consciousness possible.
RE: How did life on Earth begin? The chemical puzzle just became clearer. - Syne - Mar 2, 2024
A "compound critical for metabolism in all living cells" isn't even a single living cell.
I don't think anyone doubts that such compounds and molecules arose naturally. But showing that they did does nothing to bridge the gap to actual life.
RE: How did life on Earth begin? The chemical puzzle just became clearer. - Zinjanthropos - Mar 2, 2024
Maybe this will help the lab rats who are trying to create a life form from scratch. Not sure if they can but I hope they manage it.
Would it be likely that most planets in the galaxy(ies) contain the necessary vital ingredients for life but are not in a favourable location from nearest star?