From Non-Life to Life (Origins)

by dhw, Monday, August 15, 2011, 18:51 (4637 days ago) @ dhw

Hard on the heels of my last post comes an article in The New Scientist: "First life: the search for the first replicator".-The advert was emailed to me, but unfortunately I don't know how to reproduce the link here. Perhaps someone else can help.-Initially, I found myself thinking, wow, they've almost cracked it, but the further you read, the more distant becomes the goal. Maybe they will indeed build a self-replicating molecule, but (I quote): "Many questions remain, of course. When did the first replicators arise? What was the first life like? How did the translation to DNA and proteins, and the development of the genetic code occur? We may never know for sure, but many promising avenues are being explored." It all sounds rather familiar.-Incidentally, Matt may be interested to read this sentence: "Once the first self-replicating entities appeared, natural selection kicked in, favouring any offspring with variations that made them better at replicating themselves." It would appear that this writer reckons that NS favours variations and doesn't produce them, but maybe he's not a professional.