We identify “life” with the capability of self-replication plus some other features. In other conditions, for instance on other planets, it could be possible for self-replication to happen in a way different from the RNA/DNA-based one.

I remember stumbling, years ago, on research and papers that studied this kind of possibility. But I’m having a hard time finding the old references or new ones.

Do you have interesting papers and research material to share about this? Thank you!

  • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Absolutely amazing!! I suppose you’ve seen some renderings like this one.

    However, these molecules don’t really have a will or a scope, and in fact I don’t like how they are deceivingly represented in some of these animations. These animations show, say, some aminoacid that goes almost straight towards some large molecule and does this and that. And one is left with the question: how does it get there and how does it “know” that it should get there? The answer is that it’s just immersed in water and moved about by the unsystematic motion of the water molecules. Some aminoacids go here, some go there. In these animations they only show the ones that end up connecting with the large molecule. OK, this is done just to simplify the visualization, but it can also be misleading.

    Similarly with molecules like kinesin, which seem to purposely walk around. Also in that case there’s a lot of unsystematic motion, that after a while ends in a particular more stable configuration thanks to electromagnetic forces. Simulations such as this or this give a more realistic picture of these processes.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the whole thing isn’t awe-inspiring or mind blowing. It is. Actually I think that the more realistic picture (without these “purposeful” motions) leads to even more awe, because of the structured complexity that comes out of these unsystematic motions.