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posted by mrpg on Thursday October 05 2017, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the yes dept.

Life on Earth began somewhere between 3.7 and 4.5 billion years ago, after meteorites splashed down and leached essential elements into warm little ponds, say scientists at McMaster University and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Their calculations suggest that wet and dry cycles bonded basic molecular building blocks in the ponds' nutrient-rich broth into self-replicating RNA molecules that constituted the first genetic code for life on the planet.

The researchers base their conclusion on exhaustive research and calculations drawing in aspects of astrophysics, geology, chemistry, biology and other disciplines. Though the "warm little ponds" concept has been around since Darwin, the researchers have now proven its plausibility through numerous evidence-based calculations.

[...] The spark of life, the authors say, was the creation of RNA polymers: the essential components of nucleotides, delivered by meteorites, reaching sufficient concentrations in pond water and bonding together as water levels fell and rose through cycles of precipitation, evaporation and drainage. The combination of wet and dry conditions was necessary for bonding, the paper says.

Original URL: Did life on Earth start due to meteorites splashing into warm little ponds?

Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warm little ponds (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1710339114) (DX)

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 05 2017, @09:35AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 05 2017, @09:35AM (#577370)

    Why do you need meteorites? Isn't the earth just a large ball of the same components that meteorites are made of? What is so special about meteors that earth would not have?

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 05 2017, @10:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 05 2017, @10:04AM (#577381)

    At the least, meteors/comets delivered metals into the Earth's crust as well as water.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday October 05 2017, @10:06AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 05 2017, @10:06AM (#577382) Journal

    n't the earth just a large ball of the same components that meteorites are made of?

    Organic matter formed under the "gentle nudge" of UV and space radiation.
    A just formed planet will be hotter than any of those substances can withstand. By contrast, that UV/space radiation, while more energetic per photon/particle than thermal radiation, has quite a low spatial density/flux - takes a long time to form a significant amount of slime precursors, but those already formed have less chances for decomposition.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford