Category: Uncategorized

MOLECULAR REPLICATORS. "Autocatalysts are substances that catalyze the production of themselves and therefore are "molecular replicators." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis View in LinkedIn

LIFE IN VENTS. “While features of self-organization and self-replication are often considered the hallmark of living systems, there are many instances of abiotic molecules exhibiting such characteristics under proper conditions. Stan Palasek showed that self-assembly of ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules can occur spontaneously due to physical factors in hydrothermal vents." https://lnkd.in/dcd-YRj View in LinkedIn

ABIOGENESIS "is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds." Considered to occur during the origin of life on our planet (or elsewhere). https://lnkd.in/dcd-YRj View in LinkedIn

"SELF-REPLICATION occurs when an informational molecule (such as a nucleic acid) directs the spontaneous synthesis of a replica of itself. Mechanisms for self-replication can be autocatalytic, where a molecule acts as a template to make a direct copy of itself, or cross-catalytic, where two or more molecules of different informational content amplify one another." http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-11274-4_1423 View in LinkedIn

THE BIG GAP. "While the last century brought an exquisite understanding of the molecular basis of life, very little is known about the detailed chemical mechanisms that afforded the emergence of life on early earth." https://lnkd.in/dWndif7 View in LinkedIn

EMERGENT PROPERTIES. "These properties are sometimes referred to as “emergent” properties because they emerge from the whole and are not properties of the individual parts." https://scholar.google.es/scholar?q=in+silico+chemistry+of+emergence+of+life&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj40qHQlMXLAhWCnRoKHRtCAjkQgQMICDAA View in LinkedIn

EMERGENT COMBINATIONS. "A single-celled bacterium is alive, but if you separate the macromolecules that combined to create the bacterium, these units are not alive. Based on our knowledge of macromolecules, we would not have been able to predict that they could combine to form a living organism, nor could we have predicted all of the characteristics of the resulting bacterium." https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/biological-complexity-and-integrative-levels-of-organization-468 View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR EVOLUTION. "What we have demonstrated for the first time is that even if all you have is template-assisted ligation, you can still bootstrap the system out of primordial soup," https://publishing.aip.org/publishing/journal-highlights/origins-life-new-model-may-explain-emergence-self-replication-early View in LinkedIn

UNIVERSAL STRUCTURE. “Indeed, notwithstanding multiple code variants that continue to emerge through the study of protein coding in diverse life forms, the basic structure of the code and the majority of the codon assignments are truly universal.” http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/7/2/22/htm View in LinkedIn

DEVIATIONS. “The genetic code is nearly universal in all extant life forms although limited deviations from the standard genetic code have been detected in many groups of organisms, particularly in organelles and parasitic or endosymbiotic bacteria with highly reduced genomes.” http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/7/2/22/htm View in LinkedIn