> Its not even a full clue, it's a 'possible clue'.
Sure. I said it elsewhere in another thread, but I think the bridge from physics to chemistry, while quite fantastic, is a lot easier to swallow than the bridge from chemistry to biology. I think everyone mostly agrees that this is a harder chasm to cross because of the sheer complexity of the cell.
At the root of it, the article suggests that the nature of the lipid layer could help catalyze the sort of reactions needed to (apparently?) insert RNA in a cell, or at least to get it to stick to the cell. But it's not clear at all that there's any real smoke here. G-quadruplex is an interesting, apparently naturally-occurring, molecule; are there others?
One other question that confuses me a little about this, too—and again, all I have are ignorant questions: wouldn't we see some heritage of these changes in cells? We have two broad classes of them (prokaryotes and eukaryotes), but are there antecedents that would give a sense of the evolutionary history of the cell? If the lipid layer is involved in somehow attracting and/or inserting RNA into a protocell, what kind of evidence would we see in cells today? Is it reasonable to suppose that we'd have some kind of biomarkers in the cell proper to show its changing complexity?
I suppose the answer to this is no--we shouldn't necessarily expect it. But at the same time, it seems like protocells as I've imagined are infrastructure more than they are a scaffold. Maybe that assumption is wrong; but if it is, the picture is muddier than ever: if the scaffold disappears without a trace, it leaves you in the awkward position of always hypothesizing without ever getting to how the building was made in the first place.
The G-quadruplex is not a molecule, it is a specific assembly of either molecules or structures within a single molecule
Something you need to understand for these long chain molecules is that they can fold in, around, and on themselves being held together by numerous weak molecular interactions. Proteins and DNA/RNA behave this way
TIL--thanks a bunch! I've been glad to see some related threads come up on HN lately on this issue, and it's been a fruitful source of (hopefully) intelligent distraction.
The weasel word usage of OoL media hype train is so cringe inducing once you notice it.