Researchers at Penn State University have developed a
chemical model that mimics a possible step in the formation of cellular life on
Earth four-billion years ago. Using large "macromolecules" called
polymers, the scientists created primitive cell-like structures that they
infused with RNA -- the genetic coding material that is thought to precede the
appearance of DNA on Earth -- and demonstrated how the molecules would react
chemically under conditions that might have been present on the early Earth.
The journal Nature Chemistry will post the research as an Advance Online
Publication on 14 October 2012.