THE SIMPLEST FORM OF LIFE 



Hypotheses concerning the origin and constitu- 

 tion of the simplest living organisms must neces- 

 sarily be surrounded by a great deal of uncer- 

 tainty, but any hypothesis, however speculative, 

 is preferable to total darkness. 



Although life must have commenced by the 

 formation of single polypeptide spirals, yet it 

 could not have existed in any sort of a stable and 

 self-perpetuating form until a number of such 

 spirals had clustered together into parallel for- 

 mation and had become permanently joined to 

 one another. It does not appear that a series of 

 polypeptide spirals connected edge to edge to 

 form a single polygonal compartment could con- 

 stitute a permanent living organism because the 

 exposed corners would render such a structure 

 extremely vulnerable. Structures of this sort 

 were probably formed temporarily when life first 

 emerged from inorganic substances, but they 

 must have become reinforced inmaediately by the 

 addition of more spirals. If we assume that there 

 was first formed a single hexagonal compartment, 

 and that an additional hexagonal compartment 

 was then formed upon each of the sides of the 

 original one, there would have been produced a 

 cluster of seven compartments which would be 



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