How did the first ever living creatures start, how can life start from nothing?
In: Biology
Sometimes, amino acids randomly happen to configure themselves into a stable state that just so happens to have the right configuration to catalyze the reaction of other amino acids into the same arrangement.
In other words: Given the right circumstances, this arrangement of amino acids happens to create copies of itself. Sometimes, those copies are not perfect, but instead, produce slightly different arrangements. This is a process known as “mutation”.
If something mutates, it might happen to turn into an arrangement that is even better at creating copies of itself than the original one. This is known as “evolution”.
The best arrangements at creating copies of themselves will end up becoming more numerous, thus creating even more copies of itself than alternate arrangements do. Eventually, the majority of arrangements will be those that are the best at creating copies. This is known as “natural selection”.
After the ocean ran out of amino acids, these arrangements could no longer spread as easily. Until some arrangements happened to randomly contain the right type of chemical bond causing them to break apart *other* arrangements of amino acids back into their constituent amino acids. In response to which, arrangements started flourishing in which the vulnerable amino acids ended up surrounded by more resistant molecules.
The arms race is still continuing today. At some point we just stopped calling them “arrangement of amino acids” and started calling them “lifeforms”.
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