alienation news

It's life Jim, but not as we know it

James Ferris at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, has performed experiments showing that RNA sequences of up to 50 nucleotides in length can be formed using a type of clay known as montmorillonite (a hydrated aluminosilicate) as both a template and catalyst for linking the nucleotides together. This is not the first time that clay has played a role in origin of life theories.
The idea was first popularised by the British chemist Graham Cairns-Smith, who suggested that clay may have been the first genetic system. His theory was that irregularities in clay sheets could have acted as catalytic surfaces, as well as providing a template on which new clay could be added. The clay would 'reproduce' by splitting in two, with the new sheet retaining many of the old sheet's irregularities.
At some stage, however, carbon compounds would have become involved, and eventually RNA strands capable of self-catalysis would have been produced, as James Ferris is currently showing experimentally.