Re:Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks
by postmodest on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @09:37AM
(#36862008)
You keep saying that last part and it's meaningless.
The Sun (and sometimes the earth itself) provides energy to the system, and we're talking about a billion years to go from "churning precursors in a hot soup" to "replicating molecular machines".
I mean, what's your alternative theory? The Abrahamic God?
Re:Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks
by fastaguy88 on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @10:50AM
(#36863114)
Not really a billion years though. Perhaps several hundred million between when there was liquid water on earth and evidence of bacterial life. A surprisingly short time. We have spend almost 10x as long evolving to modern organisms than it took to get started.
Re:Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks
by postmodest on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @02:41PM
(#36867311)
True... I was trying to be generous. (...or conservative; whichever way you slice it.)
It is fascinating how early "goop to replicators" happened in our history. It really highlights how common life must be where there's water.
Re:Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks
by coltonv on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @09:35AM
(#36861984)
If that's the case on earth then life would be impossible, no? The sun provides constant low entropy energy to the planet that fuels chemical reactions. We see this support life starting at the bottom of the food chain, plants etc, which then supports the rest of life. That works the same way, providing energy for chemical reactions that build things by harvesting the energy. Like plants do, just with simple molecules.
Re:Life on Earth didn’t arise as described in textbooks
by AstralStorm on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @09:52AM
(#36862204)
Additionally a lot of energy has been buffered in the rock itself as heat and not quite simple minerals. Underwater heat vents are solid candidates for abiogenesis.
There's no evidence for the above: chemical processes decay, time works against the chemistry.