Scientists in a lab (click here) used a powerful laser to re-create what might have been the original spark of life on Earth.
Researchers zapped clay and a chemical soup with the laser to simulate the energy of a speeding asteroid smashing into the planet.
They ended up creating what can be considered crucial pieces of the building blocks of life.
The experiment produced all four chemical bases needed to make RNA, a simpler relative of DNA, the blueprint of life....
..."These findings suggest that the emergence of terrestrial life is not the result of an accident but a direct consequence of the conditions on the primordial Earth and its surroundings," the researchers concluded in the study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....
...Civis said the scientists used a laser almost 150 metres long that for a fraction of a second zapped the chemical soup with an invisible beam.
The power was so intense and concentrated that Civis said that for less than a billionth of a second, it was equivalent to the output of a couple of nuclear power plants.
It produced what would be around a billion kilowatts of energy for that sliver of time over a fraction of an inch, generating heat of more than 4200C, the researchers said.
Some of the earliest life on Earth seemed to coincide with a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment, when the solar system's asteroid belt was bigger and stray space rocks hit our planet more often, said study co-author David Nesvorny, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado....
RNA (click here) are transcription codes for DNA. There are four base pairs that provide sequencing for life as dictated by DNA.
The fact is creating the four base pairs while elaborate in their production can be produced in several ways.
Any genetic material be it RNA or DNA are very willing to be produced. DNA is very sticky material and likes to generate itself. Mutations of already living organisms happens without much fanfare and certainly without lasers or otherwise. These experiments while interesting still don't explain the origins of the universe. They do however prove the spawning of life is not all that difficult.
...Civis said the scientists used a laser almost 150 metres long that for a fraction of a second zapped the chemical soup with an invisible beam.
The power was so intense and concentrated that Civis said that for less than a billionth of a second, it was equivalent to the output of a couple of nuclear power plants.
It produced what would be around a billion kilowatts of energy for that sliver of time over a fraction of an inch, generating heat of more than 4200C, the researchers said.
Some of the earliest life on Earth seemed to coincide with a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment, when the solar system's asteroid belt was bigger and stray space rocks hit our planet more often, said study co-author David Nesvorny, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado....
RNA (click here) are transcription codes for DNA. There are four base pairs that provide sequencing for life as dictated by DNA.The fact is creating the four base pairs while elaborate in their production can be produced in several ways.
Any genetic material be it RNA or DNA are very willing to be produced. DNA is very sticky material and likes to generate itself. Mutations of already living organisms happens without much fanfare and certainly without lasers or otherwise. These experiments while interesting still don't explain the origins of the universe. They do however prove the spawning of life is not all that difficult.
