LIFE on Earth has two basic talents. It can replicate, or copy itself, and it can metabolise nutrients for energy. ÒÁÈ˾þÃs have long been divided over which came first. The latest contribution to the debate argues strongly that the honour should go to replication.
The rival metabolism-first camp argues that life could not have existed without the simple molecules that produce energy, so they must have come first. For instance, Günter Wächtershäuser, a chemist turned patent lawyer in Munich, Germany, has hypothesised that one of the first key molecules to emerge from the primordial soup was acetic acid. This molecule…
