No Moon, no life on Earth, suggests theory

12:17 18 March 04

Without the Moon, there would have been no life on Earth.

Four billion years ago, when life began, the Moon orbited much closer to us
than it does now, causing massive tides to ebb and flow every few hours.
These tides caused dramatic fluctuations in salinity around coastlines which
could have driven the evolution of early DNA-like biomolecules.

This hypothesis, which is the work of Richard Lathe, a molecular biologist
at Pieta Research in Edinburgh, UK, also suggests that life could not have
begun on Mars.

According to one theory for the origin of life, self-replicating molecules
such as DNA or RNA emerged when small precursor molecules in the primordial
"soup" polymerised into long strands. These strands served as templates for
more precursor molecules to attach along the templates, creating
double-stranded polymers similar to DNA.

But the whole theory fails without some way of breaking apart the double
strands to keep the process going, says Lathe. It would take some external
force to dissociate the two strands, he says.

Read the rest at New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994786


Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek.
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