AND CERTAIN OF THE CREATURES THAT WE CREATE...:

First life: The search for the first replicator: Life must have begun with a simple molecule that could reproduce itself - and now we think we know how to make one (Michael Marshall, 8/15/11, New Scientist)

4 BILLION years before present: the surface of a newly formed planet around a medium-sized star is beginning to cool down. It's a violent place, bombarded by meteorites and riven by volcanic eruptions, with an atmosphere full of toxic gases. But almost as soon as water begins to form pools and oceans on its surface, something extraordinary happens. A molecule, or perhaps a set of molecules, capable of replicating itself arises.

This was the dawn of evolution. [...]

Right now, there's no way to choose between these options. No fossilised vestiges remain of the first replicators as far as we know. But we can try recreating the RNA world to demonstrate how it might have arisen. One day soon, Sutherland says, someone will fill a container with a mix of primordial chemicals, keep it under the right conditions, and watch life emerge. "That experiment will be done."

...will insist to one another that it was all natural, not intelligent design.

Posted by oj at August 23, 2011 6:35 AM
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