The Emergence of Building Blocks of Life on Earth:

[paddoboy]

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-cells-emerged-blocks-proteins-stabilized.html

First cells may have emerged because building blocks of proteins stabilized membranes:

Life on Earth arose about 4 billion years ago when the first cells formed within a primordial soup of complex, carbon-rich chemical compounds.

These cells faced a chemical conundrum. They needed particular ions from the soup in order to perform basic functions. But those charged ions would have disrupted the simple membranes that encapsulated the cells.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington has solved this puzzle using only molecules that would have been present on the early Earth. Using cell-sized, fluid-filled compartments surrounded by membranes made of fatty acid molecules, the team discovered that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, can stabilize membranes against magnesium ions. Their results set the stage for the first cells to encode their genetic information in RNA, a molecule related to DNA that requires magnesium for its production, while maintaining the stability of the membrane.

The findings, published the week of Aug. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, go beyond explaining how amino acids could have stabilized membranes in unfavorable environments. They also demonstrate how the individual building blocks of cellular structures—membranes, proteins and RNA—could have co-localized within watery environments on the ancient Earth.

more at link......

the paper:

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/08/06/1900275116

 

[pluto2]

The fact is that scientists are becoming way too arrogant.

There are many things we don't know and may also never know about the origin of life or about how the human body really works yet many scientists are becoming way too proud and arrogant to admit that.

 

[Write4U]

The fact is that scientists are becoming way too arrogant.

There are many things we don't know and may also never know about the origin of life or about how the human body really works yet many scientists are becoming way too proud and arrogant to admit that.

There are many things we don't fully understand, but are available for practical applications.

I would say that it is arrogant to say that, "because we don't know the exact process, it cannot have a natural origin" and then assign some supernatural causality to the phenomenon. That's not just arrogant, it's duplicitous.

But, we have a very good idea how and what was required for some things to happen. The one great obstacle is finding a chronology in the 13.7 billion years since the beginning of the evolution of bio-chemicals which are used in the "building blocks of life".

We know on earth the origins of life it must have occurred some 3.5 billiom years ago, due to the "known" necessary bio-chemicals and the chemistry which might have existed or evolved during the various stages of the earth's global climate patterns. Conditions and events which shaped our bio-chemical world and were permittive of certain creative cellular expressions.

The emergence of "motility" in energy consuming cells. The flagella is no more than a evolved chemically dynamic system which has a survival advantage of "propulsion" (hunting).

The emergence of "living" properties were nothing but evolutionary refinements of bio-chemical actions. i.e. light sensitive chemical sensory patches evolved into complex eyes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_eye

Note that every stage of the eye is a seperate functional organ, all the way back to the formation of reactive light sensitive chemicals. There is no "irreducible complexity"!

Finally, we know just about every bio-chemical which make up our physical pattern. And it is noteworthy that all bio-chemical compounds consist of more fundamentally pure chemicals. We know this is the pool from which bio-chemicals were formed and evolved into greater and greater chemical complexity, including the building of "microtubules" which make up the cytoskeleton of living things. And also act as "information processors", a form of quantum computing. Human are biological computers, just as the single celled paramecium is a very simple biological computer.

What sets human and other (sensory) sentient organisms apart from other physical objects is the interactive abilities of the chemicals which are being used in the formation of bio-chemical compounds used in organisms where sensory abilities provide a survival advantage.

The Role of Cytoplasm in a Cell

byRegina Bailey, Updated August 21, 2019

Cytoplasm consists of all of the contents outside of the

nucleus and enclosed within the cell membrane of a cell. It is clear in color and has a gel-like appearance. Cytoplasm is composed mainly of water but also contains enzymes, salts, organelles, and various organic molecules.

https://www.thoughtco.com/cytoplasm-defined-373301

Do read the link, it has awesome information.

Cytoplasm Functions

• The cytoplasm functions to support and suspend organelles and cellular molecules.
• Many cellular processes also occur in the cytoplasm, such as protein synthesis, the first stage of cellular respiration (known as glycolysis), mitosis, and meiosis.
• The cytoplasm helps to move materials, such as hormones, around the cell and also dissolves cellular waste.

 

[DaveC426913]

The fact is that scientists are becoming way too arrogant.

There are many things we don't know and may also never know about the origin of life or about how the human body really works yet many scientists are becoming way too proud and arrogant to admit that.

Which scientists?
In what way are these particular scientists being arrogant?
What scientist has ever tried to claim we know everything about the origin of life? I'd like to talk to him.

Do you have anything to back this up? Or do you have have this "feeling" about the arrogance of scientists?

 

[Xelasnave.1947]

way too arrogant

Generalisations never work. The scientist that I have met suffer from a timid personality and perhaps the opposite of arrogant as you could find. I suggest you are frustrated that you live in a world where we do not yet have all the answers. Just chill and be happy we know more than your cat...do you have a cat..if not get one.

These cells faced a chemical conundrum

But somehow they met the challenge and the rest is history..thanks for your post ..hope you are well.
Alex

 

[Write4U]

paddoboy said:
These cells faced a chemical conundrum

From the 2 trillion, quadrillion, quadrillion, quadrillion of chemical interactions in the past 3.5 billion years, natural selection will fail all but a few mutated or new chemical patterns. But that is all that's required. One in a quadrillion random actions, will produce an enormous base of many bio-chemical variations.

Example: while all mammals have red blood plasma (iron based), hemoglobin, Octopi, Squid, Cuttlefish and several other deep sea dwellers have adopted bluegreen (copper based) blood plasma due to environmental pressures. I think it is a left-over from the Prokaryotic epoch.

Copper is one of the several types of deep sea black and white smokers ingredients.

Hemocyanin is a blood-borne protein containing copper atoms that bind to an equal number of oxygen atoms. It's part of the blood plasma in invertebrates.

And this in depth .pdf article;

The composition of the hydrothermal fluid, which is chemically modified, superheated seawater, is determined by three factors: the temperature of the rocks through which the fluids circulate; how much water has previously passed through that same crack network; and the composition of the rock.

As cool, dense seawater migrates deep within the crust along the abundant large and fine-scale networks of cracks within these spreading environments, two important changes take place. First, the fluids interact and exchange elements with the surrounding host rock. Elements such as copper, zinc, iron, lead, sulfur, and silica are leached out of the rocks at temperatures of 350–550°C, and are incorporated in the hydrothermal fluid.

Other elements such as sodium, magnesium, and calcium are added to the rock, modifying its original composition and mineralogy. In addition, gases such as hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide are added to the fluid when these compounds are directly released from magma chambers or leached from the enclosing host rock (Figure 1B)

https://www.amnh.org/learn/pd/earth/pdf/black_smokers_incubators.pdf

To me this suggests that there may have been more than one place and time where some form of primitive life emerged or acquired new capabilities due to simple but new and more complex chemical reactions better adapted to the ecosystem.

IMO, the change from Prokaryotic life to Eukaryotic life is witness to the evolutionary process in response to atmospheric conditions.

Prokaryote - Wikipedia
A prokaryote is a unicellular organism that lacks a membrane -bound nucleus, mitochondria, or any other membrane-bound organelle. The word prokaryote comes from the Greek πρό (pro) "before" and κάρυον (karyon) " nut or kernel ". Prokaryotes are divided into two domains, Archaea and Bacteria.

Eukaryote - Wikipedia
Eukaryotes (/ j uː ˈ k ær i oʊ t, - ə t /) are organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed within membranes, unlike prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea), which have no membrane-bound organelles. Eukaryotes belong to the domain Eukaryota or Eukarya.

A complete biological makeover of basic functions, due to Climate Change!

 

[spidergoat]

The fact is that scientists are becoming way too arrogant.

There are many things we don't know and may also never know about the origin of life or about how the human body really works yet many scientists are becoming way too proud and arrogant to admit that.

It's not a fact one must admit.

 

[Write4U]

pluto2 said,
The fact is that scientists are becoming way too arrogant.

spidergoat said,
It's not a fact one must admit.

pluto2 said,
There are many things we don't know and may also never know about the origin of life or about how the human body really works yet many scientists are becoming way too proud and arrogant to admit that.

Au contraire, what you call arrogance is "growing confidence" in the constant acquisition of knowledge, revealing more and more fundamental "values and functions", leading to greater understanding of "life" and "living things".

How long ago did we not even imagine that bacteria talk to each other? They do with a very simple language using chemical properties as "messengers", the words which trigger a specific chemical reaction in bacteria.

Today we know bacteria communicate via "quorum sensing". This knowledge allows us to devise chemical words that can either interfere with or stimulate bacterial activity.

The practical use of that method, is the avoidance of killing bacteria and triggering natural selection for resistance. It's much easier to make bacteria deaf and harmless, without killing them.
OTOH, informational stimulation of beneficial bacteria assist in the stability of beneficial bacterial functions.
Pro-biotics bring beneficial (good news) messages to the bacteria in our digestive system!

btw. The human biome consists of 10% human cells and 90% bacterial cells. Not too long ago we didn't know that either. Seems important to acquire knowledge in this area.

 

[Write4U]

This is a very intertesting site;

The gut microbiota and its metabolites play a crucial role in the control of satiety signals and eating behaviors.Eating brings an influx of nutrients to the bacteria in your gut. In response, they divide and replace any members lost in the development of stool. Since gut microbes depend on us for a place to live, it is to their advantage for populations to remain stable so therefore they communicate to the host to ingest nutrients again, or to stop eating.

How do they do that.......

https://www.gutlove.com/

 

[Michael 345]

Since gut microbes depend on us for a place to live, it is to their advantage for populations to remain stable so therefore they communicate to the host to ingest nutrients again, or to stop eating
How do they do that.......

WhatsApp or in China WeChat?

 

[Michael 345]

Since gut microbes depend on us for a place to live, it is to their advantage for populations to remain stable so therefore they communicate to the host to ingest nutrients again, or to stop eating
How do they do that.......

More seriously the - they communicate to the host to ingest nutrients again - is there in there possible help for anorexia

Flood the gut with these guys and also run tests checking the patients mental view of themselves ie do the good guys affect the chemistry of the brain?

Not only to get the brain to stuff the body with more food but be accepting of a larger body image

 

[Write4U]

More seriously the - they communicate to the host to ingest nutrients again - is there in there possible help for anorexia

Yes, they communicate chemically and it is a very effective and reliable method of communication. We have been scratching the surface for a long time, but now we know and can learn how to induce or prevent "quorum sensing".

When we learn to speak the chemical language we can induce bacteria to react or not to react, depending on the desired bacterial response.

Flood the gut with these guys and also run tests checking the patients mental view of themselves ie do the good guys affect the chemistry of the brain?

The beauty is that we do not need to breed bacteria, they duplicate all by themselves for as long as we can prevent or induce them to become active when we desire it.

We can "domesticate" bacteria...... We can turn you into a bacteria farm for a good time.....

 

[Michael 345]

We can "domesticate" bacteria...... We can turn you into a bacteria farm for a good time.....

Go get the anorexics at one end and overweight at the other

 

[pluto2]

Scientists still don't understand how the human body works and what makes certain humans much stronger, much more pain-resistant, more disease-resistant with better eyesight and also more intelligent than others.

Scientists always say it's all because of genetics that makes humans different from each other but somehow I'm not buying it because I think there's much more to it than just genetics.

That's the problem with today's textbook learning. Everybody quotes what they read in a textbook but that's not enough to repeat what someone else discovered.

A good scientist also needs to be able to come up with new and better scientific ideas and not simply repeat what someone else discovered a long time ago.

 

[(Q)]

Scientists still don't understand how the human body works and what makes certain humans much stronger, much more pain-resistant, more disease-resistant with better eyesight and also more intelligent than others.

So, your complaint is that science just isn't moving or producing fast enough for you?

 

[exchemist]

Scientists still don't understand how the human body works and what makes certain humans much stronger, much more pain-resistant, more disease-resistant with better eyesight and also more intelligent than others.

Scientists always say it's all because of genetics that makes humans different from each other but somehow I'm not buying it because I think there's much more to it than just genetics.

That's the problem with today's textbook learning. Everybody quotes what they read in a textbook but that's not enough to repeat what someone else discovered.

A good scientist also needs to be able to come up with new and better scientific ideas and not simply repeat what someone else discovered a long time ago.

What do you think the hundreds of thousands of research scientists in the world do every day, you fool? Read textbooks to each other?

 

[pluto2]

What do you think the hundreds of thousands of research scientists in the world do every day, you fool? Read textbooks to each other?

I know they do much more than that. I know they also discover new things but maybe not enough?

 

[pluto2]

So, your complaint is that science just isn't moving or producing fast enough for you?

Something like that yes. I think that science is our only hope in understanding and improving our condition.

 

[(Q)]

Something like that yes. I think that science is our only hope in improving our condition.

Yeah, I get that, I wish scientists would have developed transportation devices allowing us to travel to anywhere on the planet at near light speeds, but that hasn't happened. I'm not going to complain about it because I understand doing good science takes a lot of time, effort and resources. Unfortunately, mankind has been plagued with following wishful thinking, myths and superstitions for centuries, many of them still ingrained into a lot of folks, which makes it even harder for scientists to do their jobs. Science is still very much in its infancy even though we've made tremendous moves forward in that time. Be patient.

 

[DaveC426913]

Scientists still don't understand how the human body works and what makes certain humans much stronger, much more pain-resistant, more disease-resistant with better eyesight and also more intelligent than others.

When you say "still" don't understand, let's put that in proper perspective.

Watson and Crick only isolated DNA in 1953 - A lot of current SciFo active members were old enough to be in school. The textbooks some of us learned from in school contained nothing about DNA since it was merely theory when he were growing up.