Notes AND Summary
- It Is Highly Likely That the Predecessors of the Very First Cells Were Merely
Conglomerations of Molecules.
- According to the most recent hypotheses, organic molecules accumulated in the oceans as
a result of the action of lightning, rain, and solar radiation on gases present in the
environment or as a result of the spewing of organic molecules from hydrothermal vents.
- Some organic molecules have a propensity to congregate in groups, and it is likely that
these groups assumed the form of droplets, in a manner analogous to the droplets that
form when oil is mixed with water.
-
- These assemblages of organic molecules give the appearance of having been the
precursors to the earliest forms of life, which were primitive cells. At the University of
Miami, Sidney W. Fox and his colleagues created proteins that, when suspended in water,
clumped together to form structures resembling cells.
- These structures, which are referred to as "proteinoid microspheres," expand gradually
through the accumulation of new proteinoid material and eventually bud off smaller
microspheres.
- Fox compared this process to a form of reproduction; nevertheless, the microspheres are
not living cells and do not undergo reproduction.
- Clay particles or even bubbles, as some experts have hypothesised, may have played a
part in the birth of life on Earth by collecting chemicals and concentrating them for the
purpose of synthesis into more complex molecules.
- It Is Highly Likely That the Predecessors of the Very First Cells Were Merely
Conglomerations of Molecules.
- According to the most recent hypotheses, organic molecules accumulated in the oceans as
a result of the action of lightning, rain, and solar radiation on gases present in the
environment or as a result of the spewing of organic molecules from hydrothermal vents.
- Some organic molecules have a propensity to congregate in groups, and it is likely that
these groups assumed the form of droplets, in a manner analogous to the droplets that
form when oil is mixed with water.
-
- These assemblages of organic molecules give the appearance of having been the
precursors to the earliest forms of life, which were primitive cells. At the University of
Miami, Sidney W. Fox and his colleagues created proteins that, when suspended in water,
clumped together to form structures resembling cells.
- These structures, which are referred to as "proteinoid microspheres," expand gradually
through the accumulation of new proteinoid material and eventually bud off smaller
microspheres.
- Fox compared this process to a form of reproduction; nevertheless, the microspheres are
not living cells and do not undergo reproduction.
- Clay particles or even bubbles, as some experts have hypothesised, may have played a
part in the birth of life on Earth by collecting chemicals and concentrating them for the
purpose of synthesis into more complex molecules.
