Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!husc6!Frodo.MGH.Harvard.EDU!Ellington
From: Ellington@Frodo.MGH.Harvard.EDU (Deaddog)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: evolutionary clays (RE: Re: Evolution or Creation)
Message-ID: <4552@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 30 Oct 90 21:27:19 GMT
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Organization: Molecular Biology, Mass. General Hospital
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References:<4482@husc6.harvard.edu> <1990Oct24.161933.28373@sctc.com>


     "Seven Clues to the Origin of Life" may be more accessible to the 
casual reader.  "Genetic Takover" is definitely more rigorous.
     I apologize for the abstruse "RNA world" comment.  It had nothing to 
do with the book per se.  While the "genetic takeover" hypothesis is 
interesting, a variety of recent research suggests that a self-contained metabolism using nucleic acids as both information-carriers and catalysts
could have evolved de novo.  This hypothesis has been loosely referred to 
as the "RNA world".  To the extent that the "RNA world" was self-organizing, a "genetic takeover" is logically unnecessary.  Nevertheless, it still may have happened as Cairns-Smith envisions; it is difficult to pin down the events of 4 bya (although we're trying).        

Dept. Mol. Biol.
Mass. General Hospital
Non-woof