96 A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH 



If this is SO, the only thing which is required for a solution 

 of the problem of the origin of life is an explanation of the 

 way in which the primary formation of the ' gene molecules ' 

 took place. 



The followers of Morgan gave what appeared, at first 

 glance, to be a very simple answer to this question. The 

 specific life-determining structure of the original ' gene mole- 

 cule ' arose purely by chance, simply as the result of a ' happy 

 conjunction ' of the atomic groups and molecules distributed 

 in solution through the primaeval w^aters of the oceans. 

 "... The origin of life is identified with the origin of this 

 material [genes] by chance chemical combination " wrote 

 Muller*^ in 1947. 



Many authors of papers and books on the question of the 

 origin of life published ten to twenty years ago proceeded 

 from this same assumption. 



To some extent the conception persists even now. We shall 

 only consider a few examples of this attitude. 



As early as 1924 C. B. Lipman"*^ developed the idea of the 

 primary formation of ' a living molecule '. He considered 

 that carbon dioxide, water and nitrates entered into thou- 

 sands of different combinations with one another in the 

 primitive watery envelope of the Earth as a result of the 

 considerable chemical and electrical activity which existed 

 there. Many different organic molecules of the nature of 

 amino acids and polypeptides were thus formed. The pro- 

 perties of these molecules were determined by the spatial 

 relationships of the atoms. By chance there might even have 

 arisen a molecule of this sort which, owing to a peculiarity 

 of its structure, could multiply like a filterable virus. In its 

 growth and reactions to its environment it might, according 

 to Lipman, be regarded as ' our first living molecule '. Under 

 certain circumstances such a molecule would react with other 

 molecules and would gradually form more and more compli- 

 cated aggregates until it developed into protoplasm as it 

 exists at present. 



In an article published in 1928, J. Alexander and C. 

 Bridges*^ also wrote about the chance formation of the first 

 molecules of living substances — ' moleculobionts ' — which 

 had laid the foundations for the origin of life on the Earth. 



