American scientists from the University of Houston and the University of Chicago have concluded that the first living cells on Earth were formed thanks to rain. This happened about 3.8 billion years ago. The research published in scientific journals magazine Science Advances (SciAdv).
The team studied “coacervate droplets,” which are natural clusters of complex molecules such as proteins, lipids, and RNA. These objects behave like oil particles in water.
Coacervate droplets can rapidly exchange molecules with each other, but their composition remains the same. Under these conditions, the evolution necessary for the development of more complex organisms cannot occur.
The researchers hypothesized that during rainfall on the young Earth, freshwater formed a temporary protective shell around coacervate droplets, preventing them from transferring RNA to each other. This hypothesis was confirmed during laboratory experiments.
This gave the RNA capsules enough time for mutations and other evolutionary processes to occur.
Earlier scientists I learnedWhen the first complex organisms appeared on Earth.
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Source: Gazeta
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