CHED 754 |
| The easiness of formation under plausible prebiotic conditions of amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, sugars and a wide variety of other organic compounds, suggests that these molecules may have been present in the primitive terrestrial environment. The available evidence also supports the contention that collisions of cometary nuclei against the primitive Earth, combined with the contribution from other extraterrestrial bodies such as meteorites and interplanetary dust, may have spiced the primitive broth with extraterrestrial organic molecules. The primitive soup may have been a bewildering organic chemical wonderland, but it could not include all the compounds or molecular structures found today in living systems. Regardless of their ultimate origin, simple organic compounds dissolved in the primitive oceans would need to be concentrated and polymerized by simple physicochemical mechanisms. Although the role of clays and simple organic condensing agents in promoting the condensation of organic compounds is encouraging, the actual origin of polymers in the primitive Earth remains an open question. |
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Chemical Evolution from Origins of Life to Modern Society
1:30 PM-4:55 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- Jasperwood, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |