From the Nascent Earth to Ante-Cells Molecular Structures?

Abstract

During its early youth, the Earth was the site of extremely violent processes. In particular, the energy of the impact of the planet Theia with the young Earth was such that the latter became entirely covered with a thick layer of molten magma, called the "magma ocean". On the now calmed Earth that we currently know, the objects classified as "living" by our sense organs are distinguished from those classified as "non-living" by two main characteristics: i) living objects have a completely original organic molecular constitution and ii) in contrast to non-living objects, which tend to equilibrate with the outside, living objects never reach equilibrium and are therefore "obligatory dynamical systems" out of equilibrium. It seems that the dynamic characteristic was acquired before the molecular characteristic for the genesis on Earth of the first living object(s). We propose that hypothetical "ante-cells" reached a "dynamic although inorganic" state on the nascent Earth, and then, that these ante-cells gradually transformed into real cells once the Earth had cooled sufficiently for organic molecules to appear there. The vestigial pentameric RNAs would mark this key moment when the ante-cells have begun to join the organic world.