What powers self-replicating molecules?

[Daecon]

I didn't want to post this in the molecular biology forum or the atomic physics forum as I suspect it's probably a bit too Ps&S.

 

Standard molecules such as H2O and NaCl take their energy to do stuff from heat and electrical charge, right?

 

Could there be something overlooked that changes a long poly-protein molecule from something inert and non responsive into a molecule that has sufficient extra energy to combine amino acids into copies of itself?

 

(The Ps&S bit.) What's the possibility that the structure of these atomic chains generates a specific form of energy required to do this arrangement of amino acids and such? Something that hasn't been considered before? (Like in the way the arrangement of metals and an acid can generate electricity, in a battery.)

[granpa]

maybe the original living molecule was held together by weaker bonds. like hydrogen bonds for example.

hydrogen bonds form spontaneously and waves splashing on the shoreline (especially during storms) may have been sufficient to break them apart. a never ending cycle of forming and breaking apart

Edited June 6, 2009 by granpa

[insane_alien]

nothing powers self replicating molecules, they do not require energy to exist.

 

perhaps you mean where does the energy come from to allow them to replicate?

 

this will come from heat in the surroundings and possibly chemical reactions to form intermediates.

 

self replicating molecules are nothing special, they just happen to catalyse a reaction that generates more catalyst. there isn't any magic to it and the normal rules of chemistry physics and biology apply.