🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bx34Lt.Bn0@newcastle.ac.uk> Mark.OLeary@newcastle.ac.uk (M.D. O'Leary) writes:

> I don't have references to hand, but I did understand (undergrad level) that
> some oligonucleotides had been produced in 'primal sou' expts.
> Have I been misled?

Yes, you've been misled.  There have been experiments in how
oligonucleotides could have formed.  They start with nontrivial
concentrations of purified nucleotides and various condensing
agents.

For some insight into the difficulty of forming RNA, see Shapiro's
article in Origins of Life (volume 18) on prebiotic ribose synthesis
(punchline: it's hard, is poisoned by the presence of cyanide, which
is necessary for the creation of bases, and the ribose is unstable in
solution and so cannot readily accumulate.)  Or, read his book
"Origins" for a layman's level critique of the field.  I think he even
mentions an undergrad-level text make a bogus claim such as the one
you relate.

	Paul F. Dietz
	dietz@cs.rochester.edu