On 3/4/2010 1:18 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 3/4/10 12:53 PM, Robatoy wrote:
On Mar 4, 1:31 pm, wrote:
On 3/4/10 12:19 PM, Morris Dovey wrote:

On 3/3/2010 4:35 PM, Robatoy wrote:

Some scientists speculate that a lightning strike hit the primordial
soup and it sprang to life.... over time...more so for some than
others....nebber mind.. BRAINSSSS

Something to mull over on a quiet evening...

What do you suppose the odds are of a lightning strike producing a
single single DNA (the basis for everything we recognize as being
"alive") molecule from some random glob of "soup"?



Greater than the chance of having the surface of the earth covered with
identical 1sq.cm tiles, with one of the tiles having a mark on the
bottom, and tossing a stone in the air at any random location and having
it land on the marked tile.


That would BE phenomenal odds, but odds nonetheless. And to plot that
on a timeline of infinite length, that marked tile would get hit
eventually.

But that's the point of the illustration, you don't get to do it over.
You get one chance and those are the odds.

It would seem reasonable to allow for multiple lightening strikes - but
not on an infinite time line. Planetary conditions would have had to
reach a point where the molecule could persist long enough to replicate
(since that's much of the "point" of a DNA molecule), which would
establish the beginning of the time line - and the strike would have to
occur before those conditions were no longer present.

To make the problem even hairier, the resulting molecule, composed of
the ACGT building blocks would be a dead end if the blocks weren't
arranged in whatever constitutes a "workable" sequence and if the
molecule contained any destabilizing components (like, for example, zinc).

I wasn't asking a rhetorical question - just suggesting that Rob's
comment might lead to some interesting (if not necessarily productive)
quiet contemplation...

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/