I see, the actual scientific paper is always a much better source for this stuff than a popsci article. The term "evolution" was used very loosely in the salon

I see, the actual scientific paper is always a much better source for this stuff than a popsci article. The term "evolution" was used very loosely in the salon article. By your standard it would be more appropriate to call the process "selection". The amino acids never changes or evolved to become anything different, just that some were chosen to become the building blocks of life while others were ignored. The reasons for this selection were likely the two criteria mentioned above and that was backed up by the main study. You will notice I never used "evolution" to describe the process in my posts. I skipped the salon article entirely and only used the link they provided to read the real study so I didn't notice what they said in the salon page. Anyway, it is just some semantic stuff.