Origin of life:Mystery ‘solved’

Toronto: Canadian scientists claim to have solved a major mystery about the origins of life on earth.
The claims come at a time when the world is celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of the Father of Evolution, Charles Darwin.
Two Montreal University scientists have proposed a new theory to show how a universal molecular machine, called ribosome, self-assembled or self-organised itself to become a critical step in generating all life on earth.
“While the ribosome is a complex structure, it features a clear hierarchy that emerged based on basic chemical principles,” said biochemistry professor Sergey Steinberg, who made the discovery with student Konstantin Bokov, in a university statement on Thursday.
He said his theory explains what people imagine as “unseen forces at work when such complex structures emerge in nature”.
The Canadian scientist said the ribosome is an enormous molecule responsible for translating the messages (carried in the genetic code of all organisms) into proteins that carry out all functions, including replicating the genome itself.
Compared to biological molecules, he said, ribosomes are immense and very complex.
“Though visible only through lenses of the most powerful microscopes, comparing most other biological molecules to this behemoth (ribosome) is like comparing a tricycle to a jumbo jet,” said Steinberg.
He said he spent years pondering how a complex ribosome could have assembled itself from smaller building blocks that existed on the early earth. His work, he said, led to the discovery that the ribosome must have assembled itself from basic building blocks “in a very specific order; otherwise it would have fallen apart”. AGENCIES