4 Billion-Year-Old Fossil Protein Resurrected

[orogenicman]

Very interesting article:

http://www.ibtimes.com/4-billion-ye...ected-thioredoxin-may-have-lived-mars-1378539

Researchers also tested the protein to see how well it coped with heat. "We have looked at a number of gene families now, and for all of them we find the most ancient proteins are the most thermally stable. From this, we conclude that ancient life lived in a hot environment," Eric Gaucher, a professor at Georgia Tech who helped with the study, told the BBC.

Since the proteins are re-creations, scientists can’t be certain they are exact replicas of the originals. "There is no way to make absolutely certain unless we invent some kind of time machine," Sanchez-Ruiz said. "But we know that the properties we measure for these proteins are consistent with what we would expect of 4 billion-year-old proteins."

 

[Old Rocks]

Fascinating. It is interesting that I have watched the question go from 'how did life begin' to 'which path did life here take in abiogenisis'. There have been some interesting studies concerning chirality and the affect of feldspars on some primitive 'sacs' surrounded with a bilipid layer, with formation of peptides inside of them. There was an article I read a long time ago called 'On the other hand' that had some very interesting thoughts on this. I will see later if I can find that.