Piece of the puzzle: The chemical structure of RNA.
Credit: Wikimedia
Gentle warming from the Sun and cooling at night help purify the 2-aminooxazole, turning it into a plentiful precursor which contributes the sugar and base portions of the new ribonucleotide molecule.
The presence of phosphate and ultraviolet light from the Sun complete the synthesis.
Elegant explanation
In a commentary also published by Nature, U.S. molecular biologist Jack Szostak hailed the research as an elegant explanation as to why the sugar and base would not have to form separately before forming the new molecule.
"It will stand for years as one of the great advances in prebiotic chemistry [the term for the study of the chemical processes that led to life on Earth]," he enthused.
Opinions vary as to when the first organisms appeared on Earth. One estimate, based on fossilised mats of bacteria found in Australia, is that this happened around 3.8 billion years ago, around 700 million years after the planet was formed.
A component of all existing
A component of all existing life is that it adapts to survive. You either adapt or you already have adapted. If species did not have this instinctive nature via their genetic information, then they would have no desire to continue living as a species.