From Non-Life to Life (Origins)

by David Turell , Monday, August 15, 2011, 18:59 (4847 days ago) @ dhw

A discussion has been going on under "Abiogenesis" concerning how to define life, and on earlier threads we talked about the "intelligence" of cells ... not conscious intelligence like ours, but nevertheless some form of it which enables cells to adapt to changing environments or to create new combinations. An article in The Martlet, a magazine published by my old college at Cambridge, may shed some pertinent light, though I have no idea how much of this will be new to our resident scientists. -It is new to me, and is a fascinating development in the study of cell metazbolism and reproduction of cells.-> It is hoped the views from these bridges will become clearer as soft matter physics begins to address mechanosensitivity."-This is a great start in a new direction.-Here is an old direction. Touting the RNA world with great hope and not much reasoning. The usual caveats are downplayed enormously. It is all made to seem quite easy:-http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128251.300-first-life-the-search-for-the-first-replicator.html?full=true-Once again: sign on. It is harmless and when they sneak out an article, they tend to be very informative, even if this one is overjoyed about RNA, and Robert Shapiro, the ultimate skeptic didn't review it.