1. Describe the Miller-Urey experiment of the 50’s in detail.
2. Which molecule likely came 1st? DNA or RNA? Why?
a. Based on your answer above, why then does the other nucleic acid even exist?
3. What is a nucleotide?
4. Describe how nucleobases can form spontaneously? How can sugars form
spontaneously?
5. What is schreibersite and why might it have been important for forming RNA?
6. Why does mixing a phosphate, base, and sugar not spontaneously form into a
nucleotide?
7. What role might clay minerals have played in the formation of RNA?
8. If enzymes are needed to catalyze replication, how could RNA have been replicated
without the existence of proteins yet?
9. Could RNA have replicated on its own without ribozymes?
10. Explain how membranes/cells might have grown using extensions of their fatty
acid filaments.