At this year’s Goldschmidt conference in Florence, Steve Benner, a molecular biophysicist and biochemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution will present the idea that life on Earth really began on Mars.
Ancient Earth’s status as a water-logged planet made it difficult for RNA to form, because that process can’t easily happen in water on its own. But that was less of an issue on dry Mars, where, though water was certainly present, it was never as abundant as on Earth, creating the possibility that Martian deserts–locations where borate and molybdate could concentrate–could have fostered the formation of long strands of RNA.
Read the full, original story here: Did Life Come to Earth From Mars?
