| ▲ | pfdietz a day ago |
| It contains nucleobases. But does it contain ribose, or ribose linked to the nucleobases, or to phosphates? And more generally, does it also contain a grab bag of related chemicals that are not building blocks? The existence of such blocks as minor constituents of a soup of random chemicals doesn't mean much, especially as the concentration of any such constituent declines exponentially with its complexity. |
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| ▲ | ceejayoz a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| https://www.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/sugars-gum-stardust... > The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found. The soup does matter, as does finding that the ingredients are everywhere. |
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| ▲ | pfdietz a day ago | parent [-] | | Finding exponentially decreasing amounts of specific chemicals is about as informative as finding short words in strings of random letters. | | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz a day ago | parent [-] | | Finding short words in strings of random letters at least establishes the existence of letters and words. It doesn't demonstrate the existence of Shakespeare's works, but it's a building block that's good to know exists. | | |
| ▲ | pfdietz a day ago | parent [-] | | All it means is you can say "if life is rare, it's not because these specific small chemicals can't be produced". Which is a rather weak thing to say. It doesn't imply life isn't rare, or that further advancement the existence of these small building blocks is easy or inevitable. | | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz a day ago | parent | next [-] | | > All it means is you can say "if life is rare, it's not because these specific small chemicals can't be produced". This is absolutely a good finding to have in your pocket. | | |
| ▲ | pfdietz a day ago | parent [-] | | "Good"? Ok, if it makes you feel better. But scientifically, it doesn't do much. | | |
| ▲ | kakacik 21 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Whats your problem with this topic? Highly confronting posts about nothing. Iterative approach to science seems foreign here. |
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| ▲ | pixl97 a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | Finding strong things here is going to be difficult. Sometimes you have to take a bunch of weak things to figure out where they lie for guidance. |
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| ▲ | HarHarVeryFunny a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| It's a sample of one, but I think the takeaway is just that if the nucleobases are present on a random asteroid then they probably commonly occur. Of course as you note it takes a lot more than that to form these into nucleic acids. I would guess there is a more primitive stage in the emergence of life where self-replicating soups (Kaufmann: metabolisms), including things like nucleobases and amino acids, capable of collective replication/expansion exist, before we get anything as sophisticated as nucleic acids and structural encoding. |
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