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Making matter come alive

Before life existed on Earth, there were just atoms and molecules – inorganic "dead stuff'. How improbable is it that life arose?

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Before life existed on Earth, there were just atoms and molecules...inorganic "dead stuff". How improbable is it that life arose? Could it use a different type of chemistry than our familiar carbon-based chemistry? These are the questions that keep chemist Lee Cronin awake at night.

With his research group, Professor Cronin is investigating the emergence of complex self-organising chemical systems – inorganic biology. Using "anything that can evolve" as the definition for life, Prof Cronin and others are using a "Lego kit" of inorganic molecules – no carbon – that can self-assemble, self-grow, self-replicate and compete with each other at the nanoscale. These inorganic molecules rely on non-biological chemistries and mimic the behaviour of living cells. Prof Cronin and his colleagues call these units "chemical cells", or "chells". In this interesting video, we catch a glimpse of what Cronin is doing and see a few chells that have arisen under his care.

"One of my longstanding research goals is to understand how life emerged on planet Earth and recreate the process," says Prof Cronin.

"Working out how nano-particles are built is key to developing new 'intelligent materials', electronic devices, and understanding the bio-machinery that operates in living cells."

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This was an interesting and thought-provoking presentation, but as an evolutionary biologist, I do have a few comments. First, I think a better description of life would be "self-replicating information" and the imperfect replication of that information is what provides the raw materials upon which evolution acts, which then leads to the variable outcomes experienced by those individual replications. I am surprised that Professor Cronin never pointed out that inorganic chemicals are "inorganic" for a reason: they have extremely limited configurations, and are unable to form long chains (as carbon does). And yes, I was disappointed that, despite regularly publishing his lab's findings in Science [for example] and Nature Chemistry [for example], he didn't show us more of the work that his lab has actually done!

You might also be interested to read this interview with Professor Cronin.

Lee Cronin is the Gardiner Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He can be found on twitter @leecronin

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