I get the impression that they demonstrated that it forms both spontaneously and, more rapidly, with itself as a catalyst. Together, I think that defines the origin of life, or at least *an* origin of life. The rest is just evolution. On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 1:11 PM Steve Marak via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Tim, thank for posting that, off-topic or not, as I hadn't seen it. I'll > be sharing that link with some friends (a couple of whom are biologists). > > I'm not a biologist or anything close, I just follow this stuff. For > what little it's worth, my interpretation would be that this is not a > breakthrough in understanding the origin of life, as it doesn't propose > anything not previously theorized or show any discovery in existing life > that would invalidate or refine current theories. But it is significant > because it shows a simple working version of something needed in those > theories. Not proving that's how it happened, which we may never know, > but helping show it could have happened that way. > > Steve > > On 4/4/2026 8:04 AM, Tim Eck via pbs wrote: > > Sorry for the off-topic post but I don't know any biologists personally. > > Is this article saying something groundbreaking about the origin of life? > > Or is this state of the art knowledge? > > https://science.org/doi/10.1126/… > > Thanks > > Tim > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > > https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > > PBS Forum latest: > https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php/… > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > PBS Forum latest: > https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…