Daily Popular
- Nanofibers produced like cotton candy
- First human trials: Nanoparticles deliver anti-cancer siRNA
- Histones: DNA packaging and much more
- A new field for medicine: Genetic risk intervention
- Back to the Future: Cars with hub motors
- Plasmonic nanostructures make graphene viable for super-fast communications
- New study: Chemical mixture toxicity
- DNA computing: Genetic expression used for computer logic
- State of the oceans: Degrading faster
- Biopunk
Popular Posts
- .
-
RSS - Subscribe to SciTechStory
- .
Log In
-
SciTech Birth Day: February 11
SciTech Impact Areas
01. Climate Change
02. Alternative Energy
03. Computer Power
04. Nanotechnology
05. Stem Cells
06. Communications
07. Hydrocarbon Use
08. Clean Transportation
09. Online Information
10. DNA Decoding
11. Cell Biology
12. Photonics
13. Proteomics
14. Quantum Physics
15. Genetic Modification
16. Degrading Oceans
17. Robotics
18. Nanomedicine
19. Neuroscience
20. Extending Lifespan
21. Overpopulation
22. Scientific Instruments
23. Synthetic Biology
24. Nuclear Physics
25. Artificial Intelligence
26. Body Implants
27. Major Disease Cures
28. Water Shortage
29. Species Loss
30. Brain Enhancement
31. Origin of Life
32. Sensor Technology
33. Pandemics
34. Exogenous Life
35. Dark Matters
36. Cosmology
37. Energy Storage
38. Virtual/Augmented Reality
39. Space Exploration
40. Impact Event
02. Alternative Energy
03. Computer Power
04. Nanotechnology
05. Stem Cells
06. Communications
07. Hydrocarbon Use
08. Clean Transportation
09. Online Information
10. DNA Decoding
11. Cell Biology
12. Photonics
13. Proteomics
14. Quantum Physics
15. Genetic Modification
16. Degrading Oceans
17. Robotics
18. Nanomedicine
19. Neuroscience
20. Extending Lifespan
21. Overpopulation
22. Scientific Instruments
23. Synthetic Biology
24. Nuclear Physics
25. Artificial Intelligence
26. Body Implants
27. Major Disease Cures
28. Water Shortage
29. Species Loss
30. Brain Enhancement
31. Origin of Life
32. Sensor Technology
33. Pandemics
34. Exogenous Life
35. Dark Matters
36. Cosmology
37. Energy Storage
38. Virtual/Augmented Reality
39. Space Exploration
40. Impact Event
Impact Areas listed in order of ranking

Found: Another molecule needed at the origin of life
Very often important science is constructed by a myriad of small advances in knowledge. This is almost certainly going to be true for answering one of the big questions in biology: “How did life on Earth originate?”
It’s been known for a long time that it probably originated where there was a concentrated mixture of organic compounds. (Just because they’re called organic, doesn’t mean all such compounds come from living things – it simply means they’re carbon-based.) Out of that mixture, which is usually labeled the primal soup came the chemical processes that eventually put together some of the available organic compounds until they became ‘self-assembling’ – a process that would automatically repeat following natural chemical reactions (or pathways). For this to happen, it was necessary that short organic compounds (‘short’ meaning just a few elements such as carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in a simple chain) into even longer organic compounds – polymers. Eventually within the ‘primal soup’ polymers were created that at least partly resembled RNA (Ribonucleic Acid), which is now the ‘messenger’ of the DNA code but archaically almost certainly developed before DNA.
The ‘proto-RNA’ was probably a short polymer. Longer polymers don’t form easily. That’s a way of expressing the fact that the two ends of a polymer chain have a tendency to bond with each other, rather than forming longer chains with other materials. The tendency is called cyclization – forming loops. With a proto-RNA or DNA that would have been the end of development. There is a way out of this tendency to loop, which has been identified as an intercalator. This is a molecule that reacts with the strands of RNA (or DNA) making them spread their molecules. (In modern RNA, this usually means the strand expands at the point where the intercalator is present.) When that spread occurs, other organic compounds can be attached – thus creating a longer polymer.
Such an intercalator is what a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) has discovered. They found that the molecule of ethidium (traditionally an antiviral or trypanocidal agent) assisted short oligonucleotides (a nucleic acid polymer, in this case a short piece of proto-RNA or DNA) in forming longer polymers and is also involved in selecting the structure of base pairs (the four building blocks of RNA: adenosine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil).
Ethidium or its equivalent must have been present in the mix of the ‘primal soup.’ One more small piece of the chemistry set that eventually became life.