Sorry If these questions are stupid, I was just randomly thinking about how rna started.
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We know that the nucleotides that make up RNA, and the sugars, do form under conditions that seem to have existed on Earth billions of years ago. However, our planet’s changed a lot since then — a lot less ammonia and cyanide around these days, for instance. Also it took
making tons of the stuff over millions of years to get something life-ish.
That’s just not going to happen today. Not only are the conditions not right and materials to make it less abundant, but every organism on Earth literally eats the stuff. Everything from bacteria to you has enzymes that break down RNA and recycle it. Any RNA hanging about is typically broken down relatively quickly (certainly not milling about for millennia until a bunch of them make a living thing (which really also requires bubbles of farts too).
To the best of our knowledge, the process from amino acid, to RNA/DNA, to life only happened once in the 5 Billion years this planet has existed. So as for “possible”, the question is the exact same as “has life developed elsewhere in the universe”.
To the best of our knowledge, the process from amino acid, to RNA/DNA, to life only happened once in the 5 Billion years this planet has existed. So as for “possible”, the question is the exact same as “has life developed elsewhere in the universe”.
To the best of our knowledge, the process from amino acid, to RNA/DNA, to life only happened once in the 5 Billion years this planet has existed. So as for “possible”, the question is the exact same as “has life developed elsewhere in the universe”.
RNA is a fragile molecule that is easily broken down by RNAse enzymes that are all over the place in the environment from other organisms. So it’s hard for new RNA to emerge and last very long in a significant way, given how abundant life already is on earth.
But who knows! There might be some places on earth with relatively little life and good enough conditions for RNA to form, that would be an incredible discovery.
RNA is a fragile molecule that is easily broken down by RNAse enzymes that are all over the place in the environment from other organisms. So it’s hard for new RNA to emerge and last very long in a significant way, given how abundant life already is on earth.
But who knows! There might be some places on earth with relatively little life and good enough conditions for RNA to form, that would be an incredible discovery.
RNA is a fragile molecule that is easily broken down by RNAse enzymes that are all over the place in the environment from other organisms. So it’s hard for new RNA to emerge and last very long in a significant way, given how abundant life already is on earth.
But who knows! There might be some places on earth with relatively little life and good enough conditions for RNA to form, that would be an incredible discovery.
If a new day 0 organism were to emerge, it would be unable to compete with today’s organisms, with their billions of years of evolution to compete and perfectly fit the environment.
Even in sterile no-preservative food items, which seem like the perfect isolated environment, they would die. Thousands of chemical compounds/structures produced by every organism on earth exist to protect cells from infection and resource theft. Liquify strawberries and you’ll get more than just sugar and protein – it’s all the strawberry’s protective enzymes and locked proteins and whatnot.
I just watched a YT video by astronomy news blogger Anton Petrov related to this question. It’s called the Leventhal paradox. It’s about how rare life in the universe may actually be. Here’s my understanding of it. The protein required for photosynthesis has to be folded in a specific way. Researchers have figured out that the required folding is only 1 out of 10^300 possible combos. Researchers have also estimated that there only 10^30 places in the milky way where this protein can potentially form. That averages out to 1 potential creation of this photosynthesis protein per 10^10 milky way like galaxies.
edit: can’t remember if the numbers are exactly correct, but the scale is right.
If a new day 0 organism were to emerge, it would be unable to compete with today’s organisms, with their billions of years of evolution to compete and perfectly fit the environment.
Even in sterile no-preservative food items, which seem like the perfect isolated environment, they would die. Thousands of chemical compounds/structures produced by every organism on earth exist to protect cells from infection and resource theft. Liquify strawberries and you’ll get more than just sugar and protein – it’s all the strawberry’s protective enzymes and locked proteins and whatnot.
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