Origin of Life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 24, 2009, 01:53 (5448 days ago) @ xeno6696


> You're not going small enough, though your method is sound. You need to use the correct time scale. -> > 
> 
> No, for reasons stated above. Chemical reactions happen on the quantum scale. Chemistry's models though fitting and appropriate for analyzing reactions don't give enough explanation on what happens during the reaction. What happens? The only terms I know that you MIGHT is "bit fiddling." -
What you are missing in organic chemistry is that organic reactions between molecules usually need enzymes for many reactions or the reactions can take millions of years to happen. You are correct about inorganic chemistry.
> 
> However, what are the chances for life to appear? You can't answer this question until you find a mechanism for life coming from non life. This is because the only thing we can study--biochemistry--is POST-LIFE. It's a circular study. Everything we can study is the result of 4.5Billion years of evolution; there's no way to tell for sure that the life we have now is the same as it was when it started. We can't make that claim.
 
> 
> I will gladly read Shapiro--it's well overdue. My only hope is that he too, provides the complete mathematical background for his treatise.-His example I quoted uses an imaginary organism with four amino acids, 10 enzymes, and each enzyme only 25 amino acids long. This is ridiculously simplistic. Enzymes are usually in the hundreds to thousands. The simplest cells we know are way more complex than that. And Shapiro ignores the fact that only left-handed amino acids can be used. Who knows what the odds become then for his imaginary organisms.