 |
Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 |
|
| 
|
The Cosmic Chemistry Of Life
C. Ponnamperuma, at the University of Maryland, speculates that the genetic code employed by earth life may, in fact, reflect a universal chemistry. His lab data "suggest that the formation and linking of life's building blocks -- amino acids and nucleotides -- may have been all but inevitable, given the starting chemistry of earth's 'primordial soup.'" Going even further Ponnamperuma believes that "if there is life elsewhere in the universe, chemically speaking it would be very similar to what we have on earth."
(Raloff, J.; "Is There a Cosmic Chemistry of Life?" Science News, 130:182, 1986.)