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Amyloids may have been the "precursors of life" rather than RNA molecules:
The story starts at least four billion years ago, when there was no living matter on the planet. Sometime around then, smaller chemical compounds formed into larger organised structures capable of self-reproduction. And so the early precursors of life were born. Exactly which molecules were involved, and what they were made of, is the biggest puzzle in evolutionary history. However, ETH Professor Roland Riek and his senior scientist Jason Greenwald have a compelling idea: these primordial lifelike structures could well have been proteinaceous aggregates, or amyloids. The latest results of their laboratory research now lend weight to their hypothesis.
The scientists performed an experiment to demonstrate that it is remarkably easy for such amyloid structures to assemble spontaneously from building blocks that existed on the prebiotic Earth, and under reaction conditions that also seem plausible for the primeval era. The scientists used four simple amino acids as starting materials: glycine, alanine, aspartate and valine. In addition, they used carbonyl sulphide as a catalyst for the reaction. This volcanic gas is also likely to have existed in the atmosphere billions of years ago. In the laboratory experiment, the amino acid molecules spontaneously assembled, with the help the carbonyl sulphide, into short chains (peptides) comprising between 5 and 14 building blocks. These chains in turn arranged themselves in parallel into amyloid structures known as beta sheets. In the experiment, these sheet structures took the form of fibres and typically comprised thousands of adjoining peptide chains which the scientists were able to identify using an electron microscope.
Amyloid Aggregates Arise from Amino Acid Condensations under Prebiotic Conditions (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201605321) (DX)
Towards Prebiotic Catalytic Amyloids Using High Throughput Screening (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143948) (DX)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @02:20PM
The belief that life somehow emerged out of randomness is a very ignorant one: this is like believing that ferociously smashing rocks together an iPhone or a an elaborate wrist watch will somehow spawn into existence, providing you do it trillion enough times.
You cannot have creation without creator. You cannot have rules without a rulemaker. You cannot have life without a divine spark inside it.
Deal with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @03:43PM
believing that ferociously smashing rocks together [a Phone] ... will somehow spawn into existence, providing you do it trillion enough times.
Microsoft should sue you for revealing their trade secrets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @04:56PM
ferociously smashing rocks together
It just depends how big the rocks are. If they're planet-sized rocks, stand back and watch for a few billion years, and then it will start producing iPhones and elaborate wrist watches. I wouldn't recommend tuning into their television, and you'll also have to deal with an internet full of morons, but meh. Evolving the iPhone is the ultimate goal of evolution!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @04:58PM
God damned ignorant Bible-thumpers are SO stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @05:21PM
If there was a creator, he needs to put an update out already. This cancer thing is really killing my ability to enjoy the product.
At least eventually maybe we'll figure out the process and finally get some decent competition to break the monopoly.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday September 16 2016, @07:40PM
Random chance over billions of years where success is determined by... well... success of those random chances in the environment they are in.
Versus?
What?
Some entity (who?) sitting (where?) doing fuck-all for almost the entirety of existence (how long?) and watching (omniscient?) rapes, murders of innocent people, war, famine, cancer-in-the-womb, etc. and doing fuck-all about it (omnipotence?) while telling you that you're all evil (sinners, original sin, hate of certain groups, etc.)?
I'll take my chances with the dice, every time, thanks.
I'd be embarrassed to be a supporter of any entity that just pisses off and lets stuff like that happen without doing a damn thing about it. And even when they supposedly do (great flood), there's only ONE non-corrupt family of humans left? Bit late to be doing anything, maybe you shouldn't have spent the 7th day resting, eh, mate?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday September 16 2016, @08:37PM
Dawkins wrote a book for children, which might be at about your level, called The Magic of Reality. [booksetc.co.uk] It might help you to understand these things.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Friday September 16 2016, @08:48PM
Whoa! All the nearby magnets just stuck on my screen, centered on this bit of irony:
That's the most hilarious thing I've seen, since #loserdonald's last speech. LOL!
Your delusions are laughable...seriously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @09:29PM
Why is the above not modded as -1 flamebait. It's basically saying, "creationism is true, deal with it," in a challenging tone with no evidence or anything else backing it. It is obviously inflammatory, as demonstrated by the number of replies it's received.
Maybe because it is an AC posting at 0 that nobody thinks it's worth "wasting" their mod points?(Although given the few comments on this site in general, it still auto-pops up.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2016, @12:16AM
That's interesting. It was at -1 but now it's back at 0. Personally I just don't care to use a mod point on it. I'm wondering if it's our sad, sad flat-Earther (aka numbnuts). I guess the problem is it's difficult to be 100% certain that he's just trolling. Personally, I'm waiting for the alt-right to declare “ball Earth theory” to be politically correct nonsense. Then the circle will be complete.