Researchers looking at the origins of life on Earth have come up with a new explanation for how the earliest molecular material was able to replicate in the primordial soup.
They have found that hydrogen peroxide, an ingredient commonly associated with hair bleach, may have been the key to the early replication of RNA – the polymeric molecule that is thought to have existed before cellular life and DNA.
The research sheds new light on how the earliest forms of life developed, and helps explain the mystery of why new forms of life don’t emerge on modern Earth.
“The problem of how life originated is enormously complicated,