Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Origin of Life - Abiogenesis - Dr. Jack Szoztak



We were about 5 minutes into the video. Please watch it to the end, and post a question or a comment about the video by class on Thursday.

12 comments:

  1. What's a convection current?...

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  2. I don't really get why its permeable to monomers and not polymers. How come once the polymer spontaneously forms its trapped?

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  3. @Leah- i think that's just when something hot rises, and something cool sinks. like air or water.

    I like how the video takes Darwin's theory into account for how life could start to form. It makes sense that by random chance, certain self-replicating "cells" (if you could call it that) happen to do better than their not-well-replicating counterparts which would force/compel each other to evolve and get better.

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  4. I'm a little confused about how the branch-shaped vesicles can be easily divided by "mechanical forces (waves, currents, rocks)."

    I thought it was really interesting how he talked about not only the origin of life, but also the origin of competition.

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  5. It's interesting to think about how something as small like vesicles can undergo natural selection, and thus lead to evolution, especially because I wouldn't think of a vesicle as a living organism- it seems too simple to be one, yet it does reproduce (?).

    I'm a little confused though. How can vesicles grow into tubular structures? And if monomers can copy any template and therefore polymerize, where does the mutation/variation of polymers come in if it is just copying pre-existing forms??

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  6. very cool video. It is interesting that this whole concept of survival of the fittest and evolution comes from simple chemical tendencies. One other thing, the professor that made this video has to pick a less dramatic sound track next time...

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  7. I mostly understand the process for how basic organisms evolved that could reproduce, grow, compete, etc. But, was there a separate process for when they started thinking? Did some organisms evolve brains? Getting from the vesicles to much more complex organisms is a bit of a leap.

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  8. How do vesicles with more polymer “steal” lipids from less-polymer vesicles? Also, what is the relationship between ion attraction and osmotic pressure? On a side note, I agree with Dan in that the soundtrack could stand for a change.

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  9. I still don't really understand how DNA is made and replicated, and also...what is the difference between DNA and RNA?

    and i agree with kevin, i don't really understand how polymer steal lipids from other vesicles?

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  10. If the origin of life depends on osmosis and the presence of water for monomers to enter a vesicle, does that mean it's impossible under any circumstances for life to evolve on land? ... rather, are there any circumstances on land that could possibly be conducive to forming life, like hot/cold, different atmospheric elements...

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  11. overall, this is all a little confusing to me. i dont understand certain terms or concepts.
    for example, i dont get what the vesicle in the tubular branched shape is... or what the difference between DNA and RNA is.

    however, i found it interesting how he mentioned darwin's natural selection theory and the idea of competition and fight for survival.

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  12. What I want to know is the scale of these monos and poly's. What allows (besides size) and monomer to pass through the membrane and a polymer not to. Couldn't some potentialy get stuck? Just thinking. And the whole DNA re-creation process makes me think that cells are alot more autonomous than before.

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