Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.
ABSTRACT
Biology arose as a spontaneous development from the chemistry of the early Earth by Free Energy–driven processes that occurred in common environments involving significant populations of systems. Molecular imprinting to matrices is capable of catalysis of polymer formation and reproduction that, in association with self-assembled membranes, could lead to proto-enzymes, proto-ribosomes, and proto-cells. Proto-cells would evolve via processes analogous to Darwinian natural selection. These hypotheses are testable by controlled laboratory experiments. What we call “life” is the sum of properties of such highly evolved systems. Astrobiology 8, 3–8.
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Have the primary structures of biomacromolecules been selected in a Darwinian fashion to adapt to the surrounding environments of our planet?
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