A New Physical Theory for the Emergence of Life?

[Clinton Huxley]

As long as I can sit on the beach with a supply of

outrageous cocktails
sun cream
books
food
fillies

I am willing to undertake the experiment.

[pErvinalia]

Sand dunes do replicate. That's the point he's making. Apparently you've never been in a plane flying over a desert region in Australia, let alone Africa. Keep trolling.

[Clinton Huxley]

Replicating sand dunes. Someone needs to teach 'em about contraception.

[mistermack]

You would really need to do a lot of studying to judge the argument.

It's obviously right that replication is the key to life. It's how the chemicals got to the replication stage that's bothering everyone. I think that they're looking for a process that could lead to it, because just random chemical events in a soup don't seem to make it possible.

Just as you need a process to get to the eye stage, a clear and identifiable process of natural selection, maybe you need some process of a comparable nature in chemistry, to get from the raw materials to the very first self-replicating bit of shit.

Can't see why they can't identify such a process in the lab though. But if it took millions of years in nature, maybe there is no way of speeding it up in a lab.

The thing with the early Earth is that it appears that life took a few hundred million years to begin, and the number of possible chemical combinations, and situations, with different temperatures and pressures etc, running into the squillions, you can't hope to cover every possible event in the lab.

But maybe you can identify certain trends, that point vaguely in the right direction.

[pErvinalia]

What he's saying is that you can see replication in non-life. Therefore there's nothing strange about organic chemistry developing replication as well.

And as one of the researchers in the article says - this narrows the distinction between life and non-life.

[rainbow]

Sand dunes do replicate.

Yes but only when the mommy dune and the daddy dune love each other very much...

replicate



verb

verb: replicate; 3rd person present: replicates; past tense: replicated; past participle: replicated; gerund or present participle: replicating

/ˈrɛplɪkeɪt/



1.


make an exact copy of; reproduce.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

[mistermack]

That's a bit unfair.

There must be some subtle difference, between replicate, and self-replicate.

Lots of things are replicated, by identical conditions applying in lots of places.
But self-replication is a very different process.

[pErvinalia]

Sand dunes do replicate.

Yes but only when the mommy dune and the daddy dune love each other very much...

replicate



verb

verb: replicate; 3rd person present: replicates; past tense: replicated; past participle: replicated; gerund or present participle: replicating

/ˈrɛplɪkeɪt/



1.


make an exact copy of; reproduce.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

Fuck off, troll. You haven't even read the article. Or if you have, then you are even stupider than you seem. "Replicate" in the context of this entropic organisation theory doesn't mean a literal copy. Stop trolling, and attempt to educate yourself.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Rev, quit the personal attacks, please! http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 9#p1588449

Here's a reminder of our policy on such things, in case you forgot... http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 9#personal