Content with the tag: “montmorillonite”
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RNA Origins in Sheets of Clay
An example of the mineral montmorillonite (Pen for scale). This sample comes from the mineral collection of Brigham Young University Department of Geology, Provo, Utah. Photograph by Andrew Silver.One popular hypothesis for the origin of life suggests that the nucleic acid, RNA, performed two important roles: RNA stored genetic information and also catalyzed the chemical reactions that helped get life started. A hurdle in this route to life is that we don’t know how the first RNA molecules themselves were formed. A new study supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and led James Ferris of the New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute may further our understanding of the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis.RNA molecules are built...
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February 20, 2012 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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