Re: The first fragile life-molecules

On Feb 15, 9:11 pm, "Perplexed in Peoria" <jimmene...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
"Keith Hudson" <keithhud...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:eqvlj7$2eor$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Feb 13, 4:43 pm, "Perplexed in Peoria" <jimmene...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

KH:

Of course, what works out there wouldn't work out here! All I am
suggesting as a possibility is that just as higher lifeforms on earth
could only evolve by building onto simpler lifeforms that could only
have evolved in quite different geological/climatological periods then
the same could be said for the very earliest forms of life that might
have needed a whole series of disparate graded environments in which
to evolve quite different functions in an additive way. I'm not quite
sure what you mean by "OP" but if it means "original poster"

I does.

then I'll
just mention that I am in fact a chemist.

A chemist who "cannot see how it would not be torn apart within a nanosecond."

Well, I must admit that your claim regarding your profession surprises me.

KH:
Perhaps it was the difference in the use of irony on both sides of the
pond that confused you. By "nanosecond" I meant that any original
biomolecule with close neighbours (as in aqueous or solid conditions
in or near the earth's surface) might not have sufficient time in
which to reorganise itself in order to self-generate. Powerful ions in
atmospheric conditions, while undoubtedly being destructive, also have
prolific abilities to nucleate particles in vast numbers. The coming
2007 CERN experiments in which different atmospheres (corresponding to
different periods in earth's geology) will be treated to powerful
radiation and might give clues as to just what molecular
conglomerations can be produced. If, as seems likely to me, early
atmospheres were highly stratified with little intermixing (unlike
now, of course) there's no knowing what "species" of molecules might
not be produced at different levels, particularly as a constant "rain"
of new atoms were being created by the incoming cosmic rays.

Keith Hudson


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