Phosphine, a chemical long thought to be a signature of life, is floating around in the clouds of Venus. How did it get there?
Possible hint of life discovered on Venus : Read more
Possible hint of life discovered on Venus : Read more
To understand the evolution of proteins and nucleic acids, one needs to understand the planet history... although it may seem impossible to have this kind of process today, it is possible that in the past (1M of years ago) it was possible... who knows?!The problem is more than speculative evidence for some anaerobic microbe producing a phosphine signature. The problem goes back to where that microbe came from. The evolution of proteins and nucleic acids has to come first. How likely is that in clouds above Venus, or above anywhere...leading to a LUCA-type microbe living in the clouds?
Not likely in clouds.
Large amounts of water are not needed to get life started.
Heating and cooling with wetting and drying must take place
The most likely theories and experiments are done indoors. They do not even require protection from intense solar UV.
The more successful ones (David Usher) have been done under heating/cooling, wetting/drying conditions. All needed for initial peptide or nucleotide bond formation.
Solid phases (clay minerals) only add to the many complexities.
Maybe the most likely answer (for the Earth) is Panspermia?
What is most likely believed is science by consensus and that has always been irrelevant.
"Life arising in the oceans precludes any need for UV shielding" A common misconception.
There is no viable way around the need for peptide and nucleotide bonds to get cellular life underway,
Please re-read what Richard Dickerson wrote...posted yesterday.
And don't forget what the LUCA (Aquifex) is telling us.
There is nothing there regarding a starting point, only relationships.
You are not correct that LUCA must have appeared after the first life.... It WAS the first life...a full biological organism by definition and by consensus. Aquifex a microaerophile in an anoxic world.
Through hydrolysis, water literally works against the synthesis and accumulation of polymers at life’s emergence." William Martin