Searching for the origin of life using a computational search engine
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biochemistry
- Keywords
- origin of life
- Copyright
- © 2018 Jensen
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Searching for the origin of life using a computational search engine. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27233v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27233v1
Abstract
Life is essentially an organised network of chemical reactions (metabolic pathways) that can create copies of itself given a source of energy. How was this complex reaction network formed from the simple molecules that were present on the early Earth? I will answer this question by simulating how simple reaction networks evolve starting from different combinations of building blocks and reaction conditions. Computer simulations will allow me to search many more combinations than is possible experimentally, thereby increasing the chances of finding reaction networks that resemble those found in modern cells. Finding a plausible explanation for how life originated on Earth will not only have profound implications for how we view ourselves and other species, but also give us a much better idea of how likely life is to have evolved on other planets.
Author Comment
Proposal funded by the VILLUM Experiment Programme Fall 2018