Hacker Timesnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It contains nucleobases. But does it contain ribose, or ribose linked to the nucleobases, or to phosphates? And more generally, does it also contain a grab bag of related chemicals that are not building blocks? The existence of such blocks as minor constituents of a soup of random chemicals doesn't mean much, especially as the concentration of any such constituent declines exponentially with its complexity.
 help



https://www.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/sugars-gum-stardust...

> The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found.

The soup does matter, as does finding that the ingredients are everywhere.


Finding exponentially decreasing amounts of specific chemicals is about as informative as finding short words in strings of random letters.

Finding short words in strings of random letters at least establishes the existence of letters and words.

It doesn't demonstrate the existence of Shakespeare's works, but it's a building block that's good to know exists.


All it means is you can say "if life is rare, it's not because these specific small chemicals can't be produced". Which is a rather weak thing to say. It doesn't imply life isn't rare, or that further advancement the existence of these small building blocks is easy or inevitable.

> All it means is you can say "if life is rare, it's not because these specific small chemicals can't be produced".

This is absolutely a good finding to have in your pocket.


"Good"? Ok, if it makes you feel better. But scientifically, it doesn't do much.

Whats your problem with this topic? Highly confronting posts about nothing. Iterative approach to science seems foreign here.

There's a tremendous amount of confidently stated bullshit on the issue of OoL that I have long since lost all patience with.

What's your problem with the debunking of falsehood?


You asked "does it contain ribose"; I answered (with a reputable source) in the affirmative.

Where's the falsehood?


I also asked about other things you have conveniently forgotten to mention there.

The overarching falsehood is that identification of biologically relevant molecules at 200 ppb levels, in a soup of tens of thousands of other chemicals, moves the needle any in figuring out OoL.


Finding strong things here is going to be difficult. Sometimes you have to take a bunch of weak things to figure out where they lie for guidance.

It's a sample of one, but I think the takeaway is just that if the nucleobases are present on a random asteroid then they probably commonly occur. Of course as you note it takes a lot more than that to form these into nucleic acids.

I would guess there is a more primitive stage in the emergence of life where self-replicating soups (Kaufmann: metabolisms), including things like nucleobases and amino acids, capable of collective replication/expansion exist, before we get anything as sophisticated as nucleic acids and structural encoding.


The nucleobases can self polymerize into nucleic acids

Since nucleobases contain neither sugars nor phosphates, no they can't.

Nucleotides*

They didn't discover nucleotides on this asteroid.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: