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One of the most basic unexplained questions of modern science concerns the beginning of life. Scientists generally believe that simple molecules found in the early planetary environments have been converted into more complex molecules that could have helped life restart through the energy input of the environment.
Scientists believe that the Early Earth was imbued with many types of energy, ranging from the high temperatures produced by volcanoes to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The Miller-Urey experiment is one of the most classic studies of how organic compounds could have been made on the early Earth. It shows that electric shocks simulating lightning can help to make various organic compounds, including amino acids, which are basic elements. of all life. Another important source of energy in planetary environments is high-energy radiation, which has various sources, including the radioactive decay of natural chemical elements such as uranium and potassium. Research conducted by Yi Ruiqin and Albert Fahrenbach of the Earth-Life Life Sciences Institute (ELSI) of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, recently showed that a variety of Compounds useful for RNA synthesis are produced when a simple compound, combined with sodium chloride, are exposed to gamma rays.
This work brings us closer and closer to the understanding of how RNA, which is widely considered a candidate molecule to help start life, could have been born abiotically at the beginning of the Earth. Because of its complexity, creating "RNA" from scratch "under primitive solar system conditions is not an easy task. Biology is excellent because it has evolved over the billions of years to get the job done with incredible efficiency. Before life appeared, there would have been few things in the environment that would have helped to make RNA. These researchers have discovered that sodium chloride – or common table salt – can help to make the basic elements needed for RNA. Sodium chloride is the chemical compound that makes the sea salty. It is therefore highly probable that this process will occur on primitive planets, including the Earth.
The most difficult aspect of this work was to understand that salt, especially the chlorine component, played a crucial role in these reactions. As a rule, chemists ignore chloride in their reactions. When chemists make reactions in the water, it is very likely that there is at least some amount of chloride anyway, even if most of the time, it remains inactive as a "spectator". Often, it does not play an important role in the reactions of chemists, it is often part of the context. However, these researchers discovered that this was not the case in their experiments and that they took a long time to understand this. What they finally deduced was that the ionizing radiation they used as a source of energy to drive their reactions lost the electron an electron and became what is called a "radical". As its name suggests, chloride is no longer as mild and becomes much more chemically reactive. Once the chloride is activated by gamma radiation, it is free to help build other high energy compounds, which can finally contribute to the formation of complex RNA molecules.
Although these researchers have not yet convinced their reactions to RNA, these studies show that there is nothing in principle that can prevent this from happening. produce. The question now is not so much how to make all the basic elements needed to make RNA, but how to combine them in a "small hot pool" to make the first polymers of the world. # 39; RNA. One of the main challenges is to understand how other molecules, other than those that play an important role in RNA production, could affect this process. The authors think that this could be a rather "messy" chemistry in the sense that many other molecules, which could interfere with this process, would be manufactured at the same time. Whether these molecules will interfere with the synthesis of RNA, or even will have a beneficial effect, this is the goal of the research of these researchers. Understanding very complex mixtures of chemicals is not only a challenge for research into the origins of life, but a major challenge for organic chemistry in general.
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Reference
Ruiqin Yi1, Yayoi Hongo1, Isao Yoda2, Zachary R.Adam3.4 and Albert C. Fahrenbach1 *, Radiolytic synthesis of the cyanogen chloride precursor, cyanamide and simple sugar, Chemistry Select, DOI: 10.1002 / slct.201802242
1. Institute of Earth and Life Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology
2. Co-60 radiation facility, Tokyo Institute of Technology
3. Department of Earth and Planet Sciences, Harvard University
4. Institute of Space Sciences Blue Marble
Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech)
Tokyo Tech is at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university of science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in fields ranging from materials science to biology, computer science and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech is home to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year, who are among the most sought after scientists and engineers in the industry. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of "monotsukuri", which stands for "technical ingenuity and innovation", the Tokyo Tech community strives to contribute to society through high-impact research. http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/
Institute of Earth and Life Sciences (ELSI)
Launched in 2012, ELSI is one of the world's leading Japanese research centers. Its goal is to advance interdisciplinary scientific fields in a broad sense by inspiring the greatest minds in the world to come to Japan and collaborating to solve the most difficult scientific problems. The main goal of ELSI is to tackle the origin and co-evolution of the Earth and life.
WPI
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) launched in 2007 the International Research Centers Initiative (WPI), the world's first, to help to create world-renowned research centers in Japan. These institutes foster high research standards and exceptional research environments that attract front-line researchers from around the world. These centers are highly autonomous, allowing them to revolutionize the traditional modes of operation and administration of research in Japan.
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