Earth may have had life earlier than thought

• Autores: Michael Marshall
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3146, 2017, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Life may have begun on Earth hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought say two studies published this week. But both papers are already proving controversial. Ben Pearce of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and his colleagues simulated conditions on early Earth to find out how readily key molecules of life could have formed. They focused on RNA, a cousin of DNA widely thought to have formed the first life. Many of the building blocks of RNA are found in asteroids, so Pearce and his team calculated how much could have been carried to Earth's ponds. They concluded that RNA could have formed just a handful of years after major impacts, implying that life began very early in Earth's history