He llegit al Medical Daily que Transition metal catalysts could be key to origin of life (els catalitzadors amb metalls de transició podrien ser una clau per a l’origen de la vida). S’hi comenta l’article Ligand Field Theory and the Origin of Life as an Emergent Feature of the Periodic Table of Elements.
La base del treball és
According to the scientists’ model, which is experimentally testable, molecular structures involving transition metal elements (iron, copper, nickel, etc.) and ligands (small organic molecules) could have catalyzed the synthesis of basic biochemicals (monomers) that acted as building blocks for more complex molecules, leading ultimately to the origin of life. The model has been put forth by Harold Morowitz of George Mason University (GMU), Vijayasarathy Srinivasan of GMU, and Eric Smith of the Santa Fe Institute.
“There has been a big problem in the origin of life (theory) for the last 50 years in that you need large protein molecules to be catalysts to make monomers, but you need monomers to make the catalysts,” Morowitz says. However, he suggests, “You can start out with these small metal-ligand catalysts, and they’ll build up the monomers that can be used to make the (large protein catalysts).
El que em sembla més interessant és la darrera frase de l’entrada del Medical Daily:
Life could have originated multiples times, and, if we find life elsewhere in the universe, it could be very similar to the life we know here because it will be based on the same transition metals and ligands,” Morowitz says. “It’s a conjecture at the moment, but it could become a formal scientific core for the emergence of life.
Certament, el concepte de vida podria haver-se originat a molts altres llocs… però potser seria semblant a com la coneixen (C, H, N, O, aminoàcids…). O potser no.
Em fa gràcia, per això, que l’article esmentat no té cap figura ni taula.
