Theoretical origin of life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 13, 2014, 15:33 (3936 days ago) @ David Turell

A new conference to review what we don't know; how to create life from non-life:-"The scientific question about the origin of life is still unanswered: it is still one of the great mystery that science is facing. We all accept the 1924 idea of Oparin, according to which life originated from the inanimate matter through a long series of step of increasing molecular complexity and functionality. The real mile stone came 1953 with Stanley Miller flask experiments, showing that amino acids can be formed under prebiotic conditions from a mixture of gas presumably present in the prebiotic atmosphere. Which conceptual progress have we made since then? It is too much to say that we didn't really make any, if we look at data under really and honest prebiotic conditions?
 Adding that this situation is not due to shortage of means and finances in the field- but to a real lack of difficulty to conceive conceptually how this nonliving-living passage really took place?
 
"This is perhaps a too provocative way to introduce the OQOL workshop which will take place at the IIAS (International Institute for Advanced Studies) of Japan and July 12-13, 2014. In fact, while the larger ISSOL meeting should shed light on the new results and progress, the purpose of the OQOL workshop is to indicate instead the shadowy, un-answered aspects of the field. To what extent is this due to the fact that the perhaps the right questions have not been asked, or pursued experimentally? For example: how to make ordered macromolecular sequences in many identical copies under prebiotic conditions? How do you go from a prebiotic chemical scenario containing only ten basic amino acids to a first form of biochemical metabolism? How do you go from the chemistry of reactions under thermodynamic control (production of the Miller' amino acids) to the chemistry of kinetic control- which necessitates catalysts? Did the hypothesis of the prebiotic RNA-world produce any significant fact for understanding the origin of life?"(my bold)-http://www.lifephys.dis.titech.ac.jp/oqol2014/