|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
How did life begin on the early Earth? We know that life today is
driven by the universal laws of chemistry and physics. By applying
these laws over the past ?fty years, en- mous progress has been
made in understanding the molecular mechanisms that are the
foundations of the living state. For instance, just a decade ago,
the ?rst human genome was published, all three billion base pairs.
Using X-ray diffraction data from crystals, we can see how an
enzyme molecule or a photosynthetic reaction center steps through
its catalytic function. We can even visualize a ribosome, central
to all life, translate - netic information into a protein. And we
are just beginning to understand how molecular interactions
regulate thousands of simultaneous reactions that continuously
occur even in the simplest forms of life. New words have appeared
that give a sense of this wealth of knowledge: The genome, the
proteome, the metabolome, the interactome. But we can't be too
smug. We must avoid the mistake of the physicist who, as the
twentieth century began, stated con?dently that we knew all there
was to know about physics, that science just needed to clean up a
few dusty corners. Then came relativity, quantum theory, the Big
Bang, and now dark matter, dark energy and string theory. Similarly
in the life sciences, the more we learn, the better we understand
how little we really know. There remains a vast landscape to
explore, with great questions remaining.
How did life begin on the early Earth? We know that life today is
driven by the universal laws of chemistry and physics. By applying
these laws over the past ?fty years, en- mous progress has been
made in understanding the molecular mechanisms that are the
foundations of the living state. For instance, just a decade ago,
the ?rst human genome was published, all three billion base pairs.
Using X-ray diffraction data from crystals, we can see how an
enzyme molecule or a photosynthetic reaction center steps through
its catalytic function. We can even visualize a ribosome, central
to all life, translate - netic information into a protein. And we
are just beginning to understand how molecular interactions
regulate thousands of simultaneous reactions that continuously
occur even in the simplest forms of life. New words have appeared
that give a sense of this wealth of knowledge: The genome, the
proteome, the metabolome, the interactome. But we can't be too
smug. We must avoid the mistake of the physicist who, as the
twentieth century began, stated con?dently that we knew all there
was to know about physics, that science just needed to clean up a
few dusty corners. Then came relativity, quantum theory, the Big
Bang, and now dark matter, dark energy and string theory. Similarly
in the life sciences, the more we learn, the better we understand
how little we really know. There remains a vast landscape to
explore, with great questions remaining.
|
|