
The molecular structure of RNA, molecular formula [C10H16O13N5P2]N, comprised a base, a ribose unit, and a phosphate group.

The molecular structure of RNA, molecular formula [C10H16O13N5P2]N, comprised a base, a ribose unit, and a phosphate group.

In chemistry, RNA, short for "RiboNucleic Acid", is molecular chain-like structure comprised of connected nucleotide units, molecular formula [C10H16O13N5P2]N, each unit consisting of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate group. RNA is one of the reactants or precursory components in the formation of DNA.

Life | Origin of life

See also: Defunct theory of life; Carbon-based life; Non-life

In 1967, Carl Woese hypothesized that RNA might be catalytic and suggested that the earliest forms of life, described as “self-replicating molecules”, could have relied on RNA both to carry genetic information and to catalyze biochemical reactions—an RNA world. [1]

There are many currently who advocate an RNA-based or DNA-based definitions of “life”, according to which life or biology started once RNA or DNA formed, some 4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago.

In 2007, Libb Thims debased the "RNA origin of life" model as illogical; this was one of the stepping stones to the defunct theory of life (2009) and life does not exist (2010) conclusion. [2]

Difficulties
One of the central problems in the "RNA = life model" is that discussions of such will frequently be found crouched in loaded words, namely "self-replication" and "self-organization" which amounts to perpetual motion of the living kind, and hence a fallacious argument.

The correct position is to view things from the "driving force" model, according to which it is a universal rule that free energy must decrease in order for the process to occur. All of the various processes, from the second of the formation of the first hydrogen atom, 13.7 billion years ago (according to the big bang hypothesis):

H | NOT alive?

to ignition of the sun, 4.5 billion years ago (according to the nebular hypothesis), to the formation of the first ribonucleic acid (C10H16O13N5P2) molecular unit, some 4 billion years ago, according to the RNA world hypothesis:

C10H16O13N5P2 | NOT alive?
Excerpt from Libb Thims' 2007 Human Chemistry, chapter "Molecular Evolution", wherein Thims first began to grapple with the defunct theory of life issue, namely illogical supposition that the first form of life was a small molecular entity such as RNA (a 5-element molecule) or a single-cell bacteria (a 15-element molecule), which leads to the absurd conclusion that the precursor molecules or reactant molecules that went into the synthesis of that first "living molecule" were either sort of alive or a dead molecule or something nonsensical to this effect. [2]


Excerpt from Libb Thims' 2007 Human Chemistry, chapter "Molecular Evolution", wherein Thims first began to grapple with the defunct theory of life issue, namely illogical supposition that the first form of life was a small molecular entity such as RNA (a 5-element molecule) or a single-cell bacteria (a 15-element molecule), which leads to the absurd conclusion that the precursor molecules or reactant molecules that went into the synthesis of that first "living molecule" were either sort of alive or a dead molecule or something nonsensical to this effect. [2]

which led to the formation of DNA, aka the "secret of life" and or first "living molecule":

C10H16O13N5P2 [RNA] + C10H16O13N5P2 [RNA] = DNA | YES alive?

which led, once DNA got enclosed into a cell membrane, to the formation of the first human molecule, 150,000 years ago, according to the out of Africa hypothesis:

CE27HE27OE27NE26PE25SE24CaE25KE24ClE24NaE24MgE24FeE23FE23
ZnE22SiE22CuE21BE21IE20SnE20MnE20SeE20CrE20NiE20MoE19CoE19VE18 | YES alive?

are coupled mechanism processes, occurring in a step-by-step manner, each step governed by the first law (energy conservation) and second law (transformation content increase) of thermodynamics. The formation of RNA is only a drop in the bucket in the "big history" picture of this grand process and to label the second of the first formation of RNA as having some type of grand significance in the big picture scheme of things of the structure and dynamics of the universe is only but an anthropocentric molecular structure retelling of the age-old first life story, as found in various semi-modern chemical forms: Erasmus Darwin’s one living filament (1794), of Johann Goethe’s homunculus (1832), of Alexander Oparin’s coazervate droplet (1931), of Carl Woese’s self-replicating molecule (1971), and so on, in what no doubt will be a story retold, in various regurgitated forms, well into the coming centuries.

References
1. (a) Carl Woese – Wikipedia.
(b) RNA world hypothesis – Wikipedia.
2. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (life: difficulties on term, pgs. 130-31). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Thims, Libb. (2009). “Letter: Life a Defunct Scientific Theory”, Journal of Human Thermodynamics, Vol. 5, pgs. 20-21.

Videos
● Anon. (2014). “The RNA Origin of Life” (Ѻ), NOVA PBS Official, Apr 23.

External links
● RNA – Wikipedia.