The work was published in the May 2 issue of Nature.

President of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life and editor of the journal Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, Ferris makes it clear that the polymers he created are not alive but are much closer to a biopolymer than anything he has created before.

These prebiotic RNA polymers are large enough to carry the information necessary for their own replication, and they may be able to catalyze the formation of other polymers. Both are necessary in a biopolymer that can initiate life.

Previous attempts by scientists to produce long prebiotic polymers have been frustrated by the fact that the activated monomers from which they are formed break down in the very water that is needed for these critical chemical reactions and for life itself. The activated monomers would hydrolyze faster than chains could grow in the primordial "soup."

Ferris and one of his collaborators, Dr. Gozen Ertem, demonstrated previously that addition of a clay mineral to the reaction resulted in the formation of chains up to 10 monomer units.

Ferris has now shown that he can stay ahead of hydrolysis and grow a small RNA polymer of more than 50 units if he regularly flushes the system with fresh water and then adds more activated raw materials. Such conditions could certainly have been present on early Earth, he says.

The Nature article, titled "Synthesis of Long Prebiotic Oligomers on Mineral Surfaces," was co-authored by Leslie Orgel, resident fellow and his collaborators The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego.

Contact: James Ferris (518) 276-8493, ferrij@rpi.edu