Abiogenesis (Origins)

by broken_cynic , Thursday, August 04, 2011, 22:25 (4858 days ago) @ David Turell

David Turell: I must step in. You have admitted that you are not well-read in this area of science. The 'classic protein' was tossed out a long time ago. -Fair point. I made what was intended to be a broad analogy too specific. The "protein" was simply meant to illustrate the important bit: "All that is necessary to begin with is imperfect self-replication." I don't even know that (even if we knew the complete history/process) it would make sense to define one specific event as the transition from non-life to life. Conway's Game of Life demonstrates how simple of a system can lead to 'reproduction' and change over time. It is not necessary for anything we would recognise today as a living thing to spontaneously develop, only as noted above, for a self-replicating system to form. -> Going from inorganic molecules to organic alone is a giant step, and the Earth started as inorganic. -I am a little confused as to what you mean by going from inorganic to organic since, in chemistry terms, organic just means that carbon is involved? It smacks of vitalism, but perhaps I misunderstand you.