Mechanism behind origin of life on Earth found

Washington: Researchers have found that a molecular network with self-perpetuating capability may have triggered a possible mechanism by which life got a foothold on the early Earth.It sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotten a foothold in the chemical soup that existed on early Earth.
Researchers have proposed several theories for how life on Earth could have gotten its start,even before the first genes or living cells came to be.One theme all theories have in common is a network of molecules that have the ability to work together to jumpstart and speed up their own replication two necessary ingredients for life.
However,many researchers find it hard to imagine how such a molecular network could have formed spontaneously from the chemical env ronment of early Earth.
Some say its equivalent to a tornado blowing through a junkyard and assembling the random pieces of metal into a Boeing 747, said co-author Wim Hordijk from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre in Durham,North Carolina.If you look at the structure of the networks of molecules,very often theyre composed of smaller subsets of molecules with the same self-perpetuating capabilities, he said.PTI