This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lexor (talk | contribs) at 05:57, 8 January 2005 (Rm link, if further links from the mainstream scientific community are included, I would not object to this link being restored.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 05:57, 8 January 2005 by Lexor (talk | contribs) (Rm link, if further links from the mainstream scientific community are included, I would not object to this link being restored.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.