Re: [DIYbio] Information physics and theoretical limits of extremely old DNA?

> Does leave the little problem of where life
> came from in the first place...

No it doesn't. We have great experiments going back decades showing how
easy it is for complex chemistry to emerge from early earth conditions,
and from there chaos theory takes over; self-replicating patterns will
emerge and, by their very nature, self-perpetuate until they dominate
chemistry in the environment.

Next thing you know, the pool of available randomness to convert runs
out; suddenly your self-perpetuating patterns are eating one another,
and evolution begins. Somewhere from here, you get what we might define
as life, but it's a very fuzzy boundary.

Early (and present) Earth has all you need; steep energy gradients, lots
of tasty elemental and molecular precursors, and enough solvent to make
it all happen in the same container.

While exobiologists love the idea of life being seeded from a
space-missile, there's really no need for an asteroid/comet/other to
explain life on earth. We already know how it can happen without space
missiles, and it's more than plausible.

> Re ancient DNA I wonder whether anyone has looked in crude
> oil for non-bacterial DNA/protein sequences. I know you can find
> things like porphryin in there but I guess it might be too non-polar
> for DNA, you might find some lipophilic pepdites though.

Oil and other fossil fuels aren't old enough for "early life" fossils,
AFAIK. But you'll find plenty of non-bacterial DNA there; archaea, at
the very least!

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