PHYS 190 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Molecular-Weight Size Marker, Chemical Evolution, Stromatolite
31 Mar 2018
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Physical basis of life on earth - element carbon. B/c of way carbon atoms bond to each other & to other atoms, can form long, complex, stable chains capable of storing & transmitting info. Carbon may not be crucial to life. In order to build carbon-based life from inorganic matter, several components needed. Constituents of nucleic acids, dna and rna. Almost every action performed by living cell is carried out by chemicals it manufactures. Cells must store recipes for all chemicals & use them when need them & pass them on to their offspring. Chemical recipes of life stored in each cells as info on dna molecules, which resemble ladder w/ rungs composed of chemical bases. Recipe info expressed by sequence of ladder rungs, providing instructions guiding chemical reactions w/i the cell. Dna expressions normally expressed by being copied into messenger molecule called rna, causing molecular units called amino acids to become connected into large molecules called proteins.
