Miller, the origin of DNA and RNA in the evolution of cells is an unanswered scientific question, is that true?
A. Certainly. The origin of those compounds is not completely answered. But one of the things that is rather interesting, and the recent work of Stanley Miller, who’s done a fair amount of origin of life research, has shown this, is that the current simulations of primitive earth atmospheres, under certain circumstances, can give rise to the nitrogenous bases which are found in RNA. It turns out to be rather easy in the simulation experiments to produce adenine, and I believe also to produce cytosine, which are two of the bases. Now knowing that doesn’t answer the complete question as to how the complete RNA or DNA molecule evolved, but it does show that some of the building parts of it can be produced spontaneously in the laboratory under conditions that simulate the primitive earth.
