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> As soon as you have a self-replicating structure, you have evolution. Not quite, you also need the replication to have random errors.
by progval 4y ago
> As soon as you have a self-replicating structure, you have evolution.
Not quite, you also need the replication to have random errors.
- anonymouskimmer 4y agoEven crystals have random inclusions. Catalysis and replication without error is harder to achieve than catalysis or replication itself. On a DNA/RNA level, various nucleotides have affinity not only for their normal partner, but less so for other partners. This becomes especially important as environmental damage (from the energetic systems we all live in) cause alterations in the chemical structure of the nucleotides. That's just one method of mutation.