"The DNA Code" - New Research Shows Life Hardwired in the Universe

A recent mathematical analysis says that
life as we know it is written into the laws of reality.  DNA is built
from a set of twenty amino acids - the first ten of those can create
simple prebiotic life, and now it seems that those ten are
thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can.

For those unfamiliar with thermodynamics, it’s the Big Brother of
all energy equations and science itself.  You can apply quantum
mechanics at certain scales, and Newtonian mechanics work at the right
speeds, but if Thermodynamics says something then everyone listens.  An
energy analysis by Professors Pudritz and Higgs of McMaster University
shows that the first ten amino acids are likely to form at relatively
low temperatures and pressures, and the calculated odds of formation
match the concentrations of these life-chemicals found in meteorite
samples.

They also match those in simulations of early Earth, and
most critically, those simulations were performed by other people.  The
implications are staggering: good news for anyone worried about how
we’re alone, and bad news for anyone who demands some kind of
“Designer” to put life together - it seems that physics can assemble
the organic jigsaw all by itself, thank you very much, and has probably
done so throughout space since the beginning of everything.

The
study indicates that you don’t need a miracle to arrive at the chemical
cocktail for early life, just a decently large asteroid with the right
components.  That’s all.  The entire universe could be stuffed with
life, from the earliest prebiotic protein-a-likes to fully DNAed
descendants.  The path from one to the other is long, but we’ve had
thirteen and a half billion years so far and it’s happened at least
once.

The other ten amino acids aren’t as easy to form, but
they’ll still turn up - and the process of “stepwise evolution” means
that once the simpler systems work, they can grab the rarer “epic
drops” of more sophisticated chemicals as they occur - kind of a World
of Lifecraft except you literally get a life when you play.  And once
even the most sophisticated structure is part of a replicating
organism, there’s plenty to go round.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Humans and Aliens might share DNA roots