"Howard J. Van Till" wrote (Fri, 16 Nov 2001 09:43:53 -0500):
> (snip a lot)
>
> More seriously, I do not claim that we now know exactly how, or in
> precisely what form, life first appeared. The Nobel Prize for that has
> not yet been granted. I presume, however, that there are many
> scientists who have some reasonable hunches about what kinds of
> formational processes are worthy of consideration as likely
> candidates. Biologists, your comments are welcome.
>
> Howard Van Till
Here is the view of one of the leading origin-of-life researchers (after
he did such research for more than 30 years):
Orgel L.E., "The origin of life - a review of facts and speculations",
Trends in Biochemical Science 23 (1998), 491-495:
"... There are three main contending theories of the prebiotic origin of
biomonomers [1. strongly reducing primitive atmosphere, 2. meteorites,
3. deep-sea vents]. No theory is compelling, and none can be rejected
out of hand.
... The situation with regard to the evolution of a self-replicating
system is less satisfactory; there are at least as many suspects, but
there are virtually no experimental data.
...[There is] a very large gap between the complexity of molecules that
are readily synthesized in simulations of the chemistry of the early
earth and the molecules that are known to form potentially replicating
informational structures.
... Several alternative scenarios might account for the
self-organization of a self-replicating entity from prebiotic organic
material, but all of those that are well formulated are based on
hypothetical chemical syntheses that are problematic.
... I have neglected important aspects of prebiotic chemistry (e.g. the
origin of chirality, the organic chemistry of solar bodies other than
the earth, and the formation of membranes).
... There is no basis in known chemistry for the belief that long
sequences of reactions can organize spontaneously - and every reason to
believe that they cannot."
Peter Ruest
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