Searching for the Chemical Origins of Life
By Katie L. Burke
A discussion about the structures of biopolymers - the building blocks of amino acids - and the ongoing efforts to try to tease apart the process of the earliest evolution of life on Earth.
May 11, 2016
From The Staff Biology Chemistry Evolution
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All life on Earth is thought to have evolved from amino acids, which in turn are made from biopolymers. Georgia Institute of Technology biochemistry professor Nicholas V. Hud—a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer—studies the structures of biopolymers to try to tease apart how the process of the earliest evolution on Earth occurred.
A Storify of the Tweets detailing the discussion is shown below.
Searching for the Chemical Origins of Life
All life on Earth is thought to have evolved from amino acids, which in turn are made from biopolymers. Georgia Institute of Technology's Nicholas V. Hud studies the structures of biopolymers to try to tease apart how the process of the earliest evolution on Earth occurred.
Searching for the #chemical origins of #life http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF #AmSciGHO Mon, May 2, 15:30 ET @GeorgiaTech pic.twitter.com/sTvYcCc2oP- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Life on Earth probably didn't evolve more than 4BYA bc of meteor bombardment
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Microfossils show life existed at least 3.5 BYA
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Opinion had been life started w sunlight-harvesting bacteria, changed 1920s
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: 1920s - simple orgs maybe started living off other molecules instead
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Miller's expts 1950s modeling atm prebiotic Earth found amino acids
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: We make our proteins out of ~20 amino acids, but there are lots more
- Today's #AmSciGHO speaker, Nick Hud, is director of @4ChemEvolution and is investigating chemical origins of life http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Focus shifted to RNA, makes proteins, maybe came first before proteins
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Discovery that RNA molecules could catalyze reactions directly
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: RNA single units connected w sugars, phosphate--same as ATP energy molecule
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Miller used strongly reducing atm, a lot of qs if Millers atm correct
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Miller used simulated lightning strike to give energy for chem reactions
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Mineral inclusions formed 4BYA can tell us what early atm of Earth was like
- In 1953 Stanley Miller tested the idea that the first amino acids of life formed spontaneously on Earth. http://bit.ly/1SJ6nRh #AmSciGHO
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Minerals give narrower options for early atm composition, but not definitive
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Meteorites contained a lot of molecules Miller found. However ch scenario
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Did majority of building blocks of life come from meteorites or made here?
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Murchirson meteorite fell Australia 1969 when NASA set up to lk at moon rocks
- Nick Hud: Instead of 1st amino acids forming on Earth, it's possible they came from elsewhere, meteorites http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF #AmSciGHO
- Cool infographic of meteorite composition: http://www.markelowitz.com/meteorites.html #amsciGHO w Nick Hud @GeorgiaTech on early chem origin of life
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: His lab investigating old idea that orig polymers made in wet/dry cycles
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Uses flat ceramic plates w indents to better mimic shallow puddles on Earth
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Jerry-rigged a toaster oven to dry out samples in wet/dry early life expt
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Next version needs a way to mix things really well, like a rainstorm.
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Drying helps to create polymers bc can be heated wo breaking bonds there
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Earth's cycle is like the engine, the driving force to get life going.
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Some ps on Earth seems to allow molecules of same kind-sugars etc - to clump
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Think start of life is when polymers started cooperating w each other
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: "I like to think of us as a bunch of polymers working together"
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Has made proto-RNA molecule w 2 nucleic acids instead of 4 in lab
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Clarification: Made monomers for model polymers, not full polymers
#AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: showing model of adenine @4ChemEvolution pic.twitter.com/5PLNAs8Cfl- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Changing one atom in this molecule mks pt of RNA pic.twitter.com/xcK5SgmD72
- Nick Hud: I like to think of us, as living organisms, as really just a cooperation of polymers. http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF #AmSciGHO
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: We started w proto-RNA more easily synthesized on early Earth but rm for impr
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: DNA is able to more stably store info than earlier molecules could
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Needed enzymes to make our proteins; earliest forms needed catalysts also
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: DNA and RNA were also subject to natural selection of advantageous attributes
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Chem to mk RNA may have required protein catalysts, ancestor RNA then feedbk?
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Cooperation betwn polymers so impt that affect each other at basic structure
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Cooperation means when polymers come together, get exponential abilities
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Expts to produce RNA still produce short polymers/small yields, missing smthg
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: DNA is so familiar to us that we don't remember how bizarre it is chemically
- Nick Hud wants to know where does RNA come from? Where does DNA come from? http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF #AmSciGHO
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Spoke on @story_collider about how to explain research to his mom/family
- Nick Hud talking about chemical origins of life on @story_collider, respecting family's religious beliefs http://bit.ly/1SVi2hS #AmSciGHO
- Nick Hud discussed 3.5 bill YO fossils at start of #AmSciGHO.More info: Schopf's Cradle of Life frm @PrincetonUPress http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6542.html …
CCE director Hud captivating scientists of all ages this afternoon with @AmSciMag @GT_CHEM @GT_Sciences #amscigho pic.twitter.com/2czhol6coM- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Also look at origin of peptides, how other molecules there would help to form
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Some of the molecules that helped life get going might not even exist today
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Hydroxy acids mk amino acids link up at lower temps...
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: ...and hydroxy acids also found in Miller's expt, in meteorites.
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: More molecules mk for messier, complex reactions, but could be more accurate
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Some scientists think it's futile to study origin of life bc you can't prove
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: Feel those scientists aren't adventurous enough, missing out if no scenarios
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: If have at least one plausible scenario, may shift thinking of life in univrs
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: In chem, have not made mol can do what liv org can do w chem...
- #AmSciGHO w NIck Hud @GeorgiaTech on chemical origins of life: If can do evolution w nonbio system, will allow chem industry todo new things
Nick Hud discussed oldest fossils--more info on the age of the Earth itself: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2007/4/kelvin-perry-and-the-age-of-the-earth/99999 … #AmSciGHO pic.twitter.com/V5dYbS8Tap- Thanks for watching today's #AmSciGHO with Nick Hud about the chemical origins of life. Recording is available http://bit.ly/1T9cDRF
- Check out Nick Hud's feature on #AmSciGHO! Fun discussion on the origin of biopolymers! #NSFfunded @NSF_MPS https://twitter.com/AmSciMag/status/727234760624336896 …
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