by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright December 2018
A mystery of life that I have recently thought up is: What are the precursors to the DNA/RNA/protein transcription system that currently creates our life chemistry? This current system is a complex one. The molecules are complex, changing the library molecules (the DNA) is complex and transcribing what is written in those library molecules is complex.
So... what were the simpler systems that preceded all this complexity? Adding to this complexity is that all this takes place inside a cell membrane. What was the precursor to the cell membrane?
Whew! The more I think about it, the more trial and error there must have been going on in those primordial waters where the first life systems were created.
And add in another difference: this was taking place in an atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon dioxide -- not nitrogen and oxygen -- because this was happening before plants were created. Another complexity: these proto plant organisms had to adapt as their atmosphere became more and more oxygen and less and less carbon dioxide. This change was so dramatic that carbon dioxide became essentially a trace compound. Wow again! What an adaptation!
All-in-all, this should be a really interesting topic to research.
--The End--