Gap between life and non-life (split from What if god...)

[KJW]

I have a question: Has life ever (re)emerged from a complete set of cellular components?

 

[Genady]

5 hours ago, KJW said:

I have a question: Has life ever (re)emerged from a complete set of cellular components?

 

Like in nuclear transfer?

[npts2020]

or cloning?

[KJW]

29 minutes ago, Genady said:

Like in nuclear transfer?

18 minutes ago, npts2020 said:

or cloning?

No, as in abiogenesis, but with all the components present at the same place and time. If one had something like a bacteria "smoothie", could this self-organise into live bacteria, and has this ever been observed? I'm guessing it hasn't, but thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[npts2020]

7 minutes ago, KJW said:

No, as in abiogenesis, but with all the components present at the same place and time. If one had something like a bacteria "smoothie", could this self-organise into live bacteria, and has this ever been observed? I'm guessing it hasn't, but thought I'd ask anyway.

 

AFAIK, no but we are talking about a process that might take millions of years for the right conditions to take place as well.

[KJW]

3 minutes ago, npts2020 said:

AFAIK, no but we are talking about a process that might take millions of years for the right conditions to take place as well.

But even if one has all the ingredients in place, there still has to be that final step where it all comes together to become a living cell. It's all well and good to be able form a primordial organic soup from simple compounds over millions of years by energetic processes such as lightning, etc., but even if all the molecules that make up life have somehow been made and are present at the same place at the same time, there is still the hurdle of it all becoming organised as a living cell.

 

[Genady]

35 minutes ago, KJW said:

No, as in abiogenesis, but with all the components present at the same place and time. If one had something like a bacteria "smoothie", could this self-organise into live bacteria, and has this ever been observed? I'm guessing it hasn't, but thought I'd ask anyway.

 

Viruses (not cells, of course) do.

I don't think that all of cell components being present in a mix at the same time is good. They rather need to come in a right order.

[KJW]

10 minutes ago, Genady said:

Viruses (not cells, of course) do.

I don't think that all of cell components being present in a mix at the same time is good. They rather need to come in a right order.

Viruses are not sufficiently alive to be considered successful abiogenesis. One hypothesis I have seen is the RNA hypothesis, where RNA molecules act as both replication templates and catalysts, thus fulfilling the necessary requirements of life. However, it still seems like an enormous hurdle to go from that to having proteins as catalysts and therefore requiring the implementation of a genetic code.