Re: Life in the Lab -- Fox and the Nobel Prize

Ami Chopine (amka@vcode.com)
Thu, 6 May 1999 21:14:12 -0700

Is it possible that while the protein protocells may be alive, they are not
the way life began on earth? IOW, they are not the common ancestor of all
life. If this is so, then we haven't truly achieved the goal of repeating by
experimentation what happened at the dawn of life.

Also, why must we pick one scenario over another? Why not a combination of
say, random replicators, clay, and protenoids?

It is therefore possible that item 4 [information] may for
> some part describe more advanced features that did not appear until later
in
> the history of the origin of life. Their absence would not disqualify a
> protocell from being alive if the protocell didn't need them to live.
>
> Kevin L. O'Brien