ISCID News Editor
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posted 20. April 2006 00:12
Source: Astrobiology Magazine
Paragraphs 12 and 13
"When the bases of DNA were first being formed billions of years ago, the atmosphere was actually quite hostile," Kong said. "It was a period prior to any protective ozone layer on Earth and the ultraviolet radiation was very strong. So if primordial DNA bases were forced into this vulnerable dark state, they should have incurred large amounts of photochemical damage that would have made the very survival of these bases difficult, let alone further evolution of life."
According to OSU research, the "dark state" essentially disappears in the presence of water. So if water were present, the earliest DNA bases would have been able to survive and eventually help form the basis for ever-more-complex life forms.
[How did the complex bases and DNA come to be in the primordial soup in the first place? - ISCID News Editor]
Read full article at Astrobiology Magazine
[ 20. April 2006, 00:27: Message edited by: ISCID News Editor ]
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