Chemistry Discovers God: Update 20 June 2003

Madhavendra Puri das madhavendra@yahoo.com http://my.tele2.ee/svs/

I described in the main article the devastating problem that nucleic acid templates form self-structures that block access by the substrates, thereby preventing template-directed synthesis of complementary nucleic acids, which means that nucleic acids are incapable of self-replication. It has been suggested that this problem might be overcome by using short oligonucleotides instead of nucleotides as substrates. On 18 June 2003, I received a letter from Professor Gerald Joyce of the Scripps Research Institute, who is internationally renowned as one of the leading experts on prebiotic chemistry, confirming that short oligonucleotides do not have greater access to the template than nucleotides. Thus, the problem is not solved by using short oligonucleotides as substrates. Professor Joyce also wrote that a system of proteins has never been demonstrated to be capable of self-replication with heritable mutations. As described in the main article, self-replication with heritable mutations is required for Darwinian evolution. Finally, I asked Professor Joyce if any kind of molecules have ever been demonstrated to be capable of self-replication with heritable mutations, and he wrote No.