Re: The First Self-Replicator and early Lunar tides


"Tim Tyler" <seemysig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f031r9$1ism$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
markr1000 wrote:
> Tim Tyler <seemy...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > IMO, the most likely locations are highly stable
ones -
> > deep in the ocean, or perhaps in underground caves:
>
> From what I've been reading, stability is exactly what
you
> don't want. Inert substances are the pinnacle of
stability,
> they're also the opposite of life.
>
> Gigantic tides sloshing around for many millions of
years would
> keep the oceans a constant soup of amino acids and
other
> inorganic building blocks as well as creating billions
of tidal
> pools test tubes in which trillions of experiments
would being
> going on.
>
> I ran across this in my search on early tides and
whoever it is
> paints a thorough picture. I have no idea what holes
might be
> poked in it beyond the talk of "original
non-replicating atoms"
> which is silly consider the immense amount of amino
acids that
> would have been available in the absence of free
oxygen.

I consider rock pools a relatively unlikely environment
for
early life - due to general instability and
inhospitability.

They are relatively often invoked by other OOL
researchers,
though. They like the concentration via evaporation, the
sunlight, an influx of silt and the action of waves.

IMO, sunlight would probably fry the earliest organisms,
and
waves would smash them to bits.

> Whatever else, I think stability is highly overrated in
the
> origin of life.

Stability is a matter of degree. Too much and you have no
activity at all. Too much and you have a chaotic system.
Living systems lie in the middle of this spectrum.

However, in the context of the origin of life, we have a
high
temperature environment, bombarded by meteorites, and with
widespread vulcanism.

Simultaneously, we have the least technologically advanced
creatures that ever existed, probably with one of the
lowest
ever abilities to resist environmental perturbations.

In this context, I feel the stability of life's cradle is
what needs emphasising.

IMO, it would be quite plausible if the bottom of the
ocean -
and possibly underground environments like caves - were
the
only habitable environments for a considerable period of
time -
simply because anything on the surface of the young earth
would
get alternately irradiated, melted, boiled, and smashed to
bits.

Stability is indeed a matter of degree re: OOL. The
"Goldilocks Principle" applies and over the million year
epochs that obtain for OOL to occur, Goldy equilibria surely
have occurred many times--and it only takes one robust first
replicator to start the ball rolling.

More and more I am coming around to believing that the best
locale for that "first primitive replicator" (FPR) to make
its appearance is the vicinity of the deep sea thermal
vents--based on that now well-known biochemical system. Once
founded, such life would undergo slow diasporas
outward from the vents, and in conjunction with Darwinian
evolution the FPR would eventually convert to the more
versatile biochem systems and metabolisms known to us today.

Anyway, that's my view at the moment...always subject to
change as more knowledge and data accumulate of course.
.....tonyC

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