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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (21075)	2/9/2012 6:10:23 PM
From: mel221	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69300

>> RNA isn't a simpler form of DNA. Why not? RNA is a single strand and the DNA is a double strand. They use different sugars and nearly the same amino acid building blocks. DNA replication is very complicated and requires many participants; some of which themselves are very complicated (like the ribosome - which is mostly RNA). Kinda like what is expected to be built first; a biplane or a 747. Simpler is better for getting started for so many reasons. The theories I find interesting at the moment speculate on RNA encoding being developed first and then DNA displacing RNA as DNA has fewer replication errors. Also, so much of DNA functionality depends on RNA. So, I will focus on encoding in terms of RNA. The problem is how do natural processes create an encoding system? It is a mystery, but we know it exists. That it exists suggests to me a starting point and an endpoint. The starting point is the early conditions of the earth. Warm and high energy and very turbulent. The Sun is pouring energy into the environment and increasingly more complex compounds are being created. The action of large numbers of molecules and unlimited an amount of time suggests to me that a random piece of RNA was created and this RNA had a unique and unintelligent ability; the ability to make copies of itself (as a catalyst) and nothing more. The steps between these 2 points is a matter of chemistry, energy and time. A basic question for us to ask is this; is there an RNA sequence capable of self replication? Given the nearly infinite complexity of RNA, I think the answer is yes.