stuh505 wrote:They emergy reliably in computer models, but I think it is still mostly theoretical.
If we leave off the idea of Panspermia for now, then in order for life to have developed on Earth (between the time it was molten and the time Isua formed), then we have to assume replicative systems can form within about a quarter billon years.
We would also have to assume that something very simple would be the first to occur, and that it would occur with just the raw materials available to it.
You would think that if all this is just a chemical process when it starts, that we (humans) should be able to replicate it. Unless of course it really takes hundreds of millions of years and oceans of water to get just a few mollecules.
I guess I find it a bit odd that nobody has yet been able to mix at least
some obscure chemicals, under
some specific conditions to produce at least
some replicative molecule. Chemistry was never my strong suit, so maybe it's harder to isolate the conditions and combinations than I am aware, but we have a fair number of clues to work from (DNA, RNA, Amino acids, timeframe, heat, solar exposure, water, clay, etc), doesn't it seem a bit odd that we can't even artificially approximate what should have been plentiful and common back in the day?