| Revision as of 05:57, 8 January 2005 editLexor (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users12,806 editsm Rm link, if further links from the mainstream scientific community are included, I would not object to this link being restored.← Previous edit | Revision as of 15:07, 8 January 2005 edit undoStirling Newberry (talk | contribs)5,191 editsNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
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Revision as of 15:07, 8 January 2005
Chemical evolution is a hypothesis which tries to explain how life might possibly develop from non-life (see abiogenesis). Various experiments have been made to show certain aspects of this process, the first ones were done by Stanley L. Miller in the 1950s. For that they are now called Miller experiments. However only very basic organic building blocks were obtained. The challenge is getting complex molecules organized consistently.
The hypothesis is that simple chemical compounds could catalyze the creation of copies of themselves (somewhat similar to the formation of a crystal or polymer) in an environment rich with the necessary building block compounds or elements. As these chemical replicators "reproduce", they can be created with slightly different structures randomly, similar to biological mutations. Eventually these replicators would produce protocells.