Chemistry and the Origins of Life

Christopher ButchResearch ScientistBMSIS, ELSI, and Emory University

Organic Chemistry is the Chemistry of Life

Origins of Biomolecules

Natural experiments

The tar problemBiomolecules plus heat

and time

Open Questions• What molecules can be and are created without

life?

• How can these molecules be made to react in a life like manner?

• How can formation of wasteful byproducts like tars be prevented?

Suggested Readinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_interstellar_and_circum

stellar_molecules

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/murchison-meteorite/

Lazcano, Antonio, and Jeffrey L. Bada. "The 1953 Stanley L. Miller experiment: fifty years of prebiotic organic chemistry." Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 33.3 (2003): 235-242.

ReferencesFerus, Martin, et al. "Formation of nucleobases in a Miller–

Urey reducing atmosphere." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.17 (2017): 4306-4311

Miller, Stanley L. "A production of amino acids under possible primitive earth conditions." Science 117.3046 (1953): 528-529.

Benner, Steven A., Hyo-Joong Kim, and Matthew A. Carrigan. "Asphalt, water, and the prebiotic synthesis of ribose, ribonucleosides, and RNA." Accounts of chemical research 45.12 (2012): 2025-2034.