A chemist has demonstrated how RNA developed.

The big mystery of evolution is how it all began. We know how life got more complex, but how did it start? An English chemist appears to have figured that out, having demonstrated how a base, ribose, and a phosphate group would join together to form RNA. The key appears to be exposure to ultraviolet light. Most impressively, this theory supports not the more recent theories of life’s origins—that it would have begun around in the extreme conditions around deep sea vents—but Charles Darwin’s 1871 theory, that life started “in some warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts.”

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »