Abstract
Atoms and molecules assemble into materials, with the material structure determining the properties and ultimate function. Human-made materials and systems have achieved great complexity, such as the integrated circuit and the modern airplane. However, they still do not rival the adaptivity and robustness of biological systems. Understanding the reaction and assembly of molecules on the early Earth is a scientific grand challenge, and also can elucidate the design principles underlying biological materials and systems. This research requires understanding of chemical reactions, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, optimization, and control. Thus, the discipline of chemical engineering can play a central role in advancing the field. In this paper, an overview of research in the origins field is given, with particular emphasis on the origin of biopolymers and the role of chemical engineering phenomena. A case study is presented to highlight the importance of the environment and its coupling to the chemistry.
Highlights
How life evolved from chemicals on the early Earth is an open scientific question and an area of active research
Nucleic acid polymers store information, and this information is read by the ribosome to produce proteins; proteins catalyze chemical reactions
“chicken and egg” problem: which came first, proteins or nucleic acid polymers [7]? In modern biology, the polymerization processes for both polymer types are accomplished with complex enzyme machinery, but on the early Earth such protein catalysts would not have been available
Summary
How life evolved from chemicals on the early Earth is an open scientific question and an area of active research. Nucleotides, sugars, and lipids are the building blocks of life These first three components react and polymerize to form proteins, the nucleic acid polymers of DNA and RNA, and polysaccharides. During an evolutionary process in the prebiotic soup ( a heterogeneous and multiphase “stew”), protein selection may have been driven by stability rather than catalytic function; since folded proteins are both more stable and more functional, over time proteins with catalytic function may have been amplified in the population [44] Feedback is another concept central to many models of replication and amplification of nucleic acid polymers, or their earlier predecessors. While proteins and nucleic acids might originally have evolved separately, as RNA and Protein Worlds, the point in time at which they began to cooperate as the ribosome has been described as the origin of life on Earth [6].
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