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A team of chemists working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, at Cambridge in the UK believes they have solved the mystery of how it was possible for life to begin on Earth over four billion years ago. In their paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry, the team describes how they were able to map reactions that produced two and three-carbon sugars, amino acids, ribonucleotides and glycerol—the material necessary for metabolism and for creating the building blocks of proteins and ribonucleic acid molecules and also for allowing for the creation of lipids that form cell membranes.
Scientists have debated for years the various possibilities that could have led to life evolving on Earth, and the arguments have only grown more heated in recent years as many have suggested that it did not happen here it all, instead, it was brought to us from comets or some other celestial body. Most of the recent debate has found scientists in one of three chicken-or-the-egg first camps: RNA world advocates, metabolism-first supporters and those who believe that cell membranes must have developed first.
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-chemists-riddle-life-began-earth.html
[Abstract]: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchem.2202.html
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mendax on Saturday March 21 2015, @02:01AM
I've had arguments with creationists before. I'm right and they're wrong... at least when it comes to the Genesis thing. I may not be a good Catholic (perhaps because I'm Catholic by choice, not birth) when I say this but the idea that God created the Universe is not a problem for me. The the elegance of the laws of physics, the elegance of the DNA/RNA approach to the chemical mechanics of life, and mathematics convinced me long ago that the Universe was created by some Intelligence who is a poet at heart.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 1) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 21 2015, @07:03AM
A poet? Really? You haven't looked very closely at nature...if that's a poet he's a Vogon. Krishna above, but you stupid privileged bliss-ninnies piss me off. Go out and get ebola or AIDS and see what you think of that fuckin' poetry.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mendax on Saturday March 21 2015, @08:38AM
I have looked at nature closely and the poetry is marvelous. The AIDS virus, for example, kills people and that is unfortunate, but it is an amazing result of the process of evolution. Just because people die does not necessarily mean that something is bad. The things in nature that kill are indeed intellectually fascinating. Keep in mind that death is just another part of life.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.