News
Heat flows the secret to order in prebiotic molecular kitchen
4 Apr 2024
LMU biophysicists have demonstrated how heat flows through rock fissures could have created the conditions for the emergence of life.
Life is complicated. What is true for our everyday existence also holds for the many complex processes that take place inside cells. Proteins constantly have to be synthesized, cell walls built, and DNA replicated. This can only work when reaction partners converge at the right time in sufficiently high concentrations while suffering little disruption from other substances. Over the course of billions of years, evolution has perfected these mechanisms and ensured that such vital processes occur with high efficiency at the correct place.