eli5 – If RNA was created by a soup of chemicals, is it possible that it’s being randomly created in pockets around the world? and could those random rna strands create life out of nowhere?

Question

Sorry If these questions are stupid, I was just randomly thinking about how rna started.

In: 329

Answer 1

Well a few things.

1. When you have random RNA being generated, the chances of it forming a self replicating molecule are ridiculously small. When it happened on earth, it took potentially a billion years.
2. The conditions that existed on earth when life developed no longer exist. There are no longer blood-warm seas filled with tons of organic molecules. There may be some RNA being randomly made, but much less than during Earth’s early history.
3. Assuming a new form of life did spontaneously generate, it would have to compete with the existing forms of life. We know that when life first evolved, it wasn’t very efficient or “good” at living. It took a long time to evolve into the modern rugged, adaptable, and fast replicating forms it has today. A new form of life would probably get bullied out of existence by existing life forms.