@farmerman,
Many organic chemical "packages" have been made by food or dy chemistry. The Germans were very good at "Bucket chemistry" where a dye or a flavor(both of which were found in nature) would be studied and the conditions of their formation would be duplicated in a lab. The name of the process for something like Glycine was often given to the guys who first isolated it in a lab and then studied until it could be created by natural processes(always a kick when that works because chemical patents were often money makers). Lotsa times the chemicals were discovered by accident and sometims by hard work rpeating the reaction of formation.
Understanding the reactions and recipes from one , led to discoveries of others. Most dyes were products of such work. Before organic dyes and food stuffs (In almost all cases ketones and their simple bipolar molecules were at the center of many of these reactions). Thus, as chemistry grew as a craft, some guys branched off and began looking at where do these chemicals occur on earth, or in space, AND HOWCOME??
I think we are still in a discovery stage. not a really competent prediction phase, although, we seem to learn new **** each day.
So please Dobby, dont try to ascribe some sense of " unknowable magic " onto molecular or biochem and separate it as a series of alchemy disciplines in the great science of chemistry. Youre just showing yer ignorance (defiantly so, may I add)
BTW, I checked a university chem library and there are many "SOftware driven" reaction trains used to duplicate **** like the Bucherer reaction in nature. The one I saw (Im following glycine) was part of an INTERDISCIPLANARY study , a very common multi tech approach at universities today
