Could interstellar ice provide the answer to birth of DNA?

Date:

September 14, 2017

Source:

University of York

Summary:

Molecules brought to Earth in meteorite strikes could potentially be converted into the building blocks of DNA, researchers have shown.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170914152256.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm

Researchers at the University of York have shown that molecules brought to earth in meteorite strikes could potentially be converted into the building blocks of DNA.

They found that organic compounds, called amino nitriles, the molecular precursors to amino acids, were able to use molecules present in interstellar ice to trigger the formation of the backbone molecule, 2-deoxy-D-ribose, of DNA.

It has long been assumed that amino acids were present on earth before DNA, and may have been responsible for the formation of one of the building blocks of DNA, but this new research throws fresh doubt on this theory.

Dr Paul Clarke, from the University of York's Department of Chemistry, said: "The origin of important biological molecules is one of the key fundamental questions in science. The molecules that form the building blocks of DNA had to come from somewhere; either they were present on Earth when it formed or they came from space, hitting earth in a meteor shower.

"Scientists had already shown that there were particular molecules present in space that came to Earth in an ice comet; this made our team at York think about investigating whether they could be used to make one of the building blocks of DNA. If this was possible, then it could mean that a building block of DNA was present before amino acids."

In order for cellular life to emerge and then evolve on earth, the fundamental building blocks of life needed to be synthesised from appropriate starting materials -- a process sometimes described as 'chemical evolution'.

The research team showed that amino nitriles could have been the catalyst for bringing together the interstellar molecules, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glycolaldehyde, before life on Earth began. Combined, these molecules produce carbohydrates, including 2-deoxy-D-ribose, the building blocks of DNA.

DNA is one of the most important molecules in living systems, yet the origin 2-deoxy-D-ribose, before life on earth began, has remained a mystery.

Dr Clarke said: "We have demonstrated that the interstellar building blocks formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and glycolaldehyde can be converted in 'one-pot' to biologically relevant carbohydrates -- the ingredients for life.

"This research therefore outlines a plausible mechanism by which molecules present in interstellar space, brought to earth by meteorite strikes, could potentially be converted into 2-deoxy-D-ribose, a molecule vital for all living systems."

Single-Payer Healthcare In 5 Minutes Or Less

Everyone is getting behind this prescription for a better healthcare system. But what is it exactly?

BY Dayton Martindale

http://inthesetimes.com/article/20516/single-payer-healthcare-in-five-minutes-or-less

sin•gle-pay•er health•care

noun

1. A healthcare system in which a sole insurance provider—for us, Uncle Sam—covers all citizens.

2. One of the more dependable spaces in “Bernie Sanders Speech Bingo.”

“Most of the health economists I know would love to see single payer—Medicare for all.” —New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who nonetheless opposes single payer because he considers it “too heavy a [political] lift”

Why Would We Want This?

Our current system of private, for-profit insurance and its elaborate architecture of premiums and co-pays leaves 28 million uninsured, which could go up if Obamacare is repealed. Plus, many of those with insurance still can’t afford the care they need. With the GOP threatening to kick another 20-some million off by repealing Obamacare, more and more people are embracing the radical notion that maybe poor people shouldn’t die just so corporate stockholders can make a few extra bucks. Progressives in Congress have been proposing single payer for decades, and Sanders is expected to put forward a new bill shortly. This time, thanks to constituent pressure, even some mainstream Dems are starting to fall in line.

But That Could Never Work

Actually, it has! Canada has had a single-payer system since 1984; Taiwan’s has been around since 1995. The Finns have a localized single-payer system with per capita health expenditures less than half those in the U.S.—and they live longer, too. Even here we have a single-payer system for seniors, called Medicare.

What Are We Waiting For?

Those holding their breath for Trump to sign Bernie’s healthcare bill have long since suffocated, but there’s room for cautious hope in the states. California came close in June, when a single-payer bill spearheaded by the nurses union passed the state Senate before being shelved in the Assembly. Some progressives worry that a state-level single-payer policy could be less financially stable than a national one, but others see it as an achievable first step. After all, Canadian single payer started in a single province.

Today Blue Cross, Tomorrow the World

Nationally, there's energy behind an “Expanded and Improved Medicare-for-All” bill, lowering the qualifying age for Medicare from 65 to 0. It would also eliminate cost-sharing and cover a wider variety of care, taking a step toward the more ambitious goal of fully socialized medical service, where all facets of health provision—hospitals, dentist visits, pharmaceuticals and, hell, even veterinary care—are detached from the whims of the market and distributed freely and equally in the public sphere.

Pharma CEO Worries Americans Will Say “Enough Is Enough” and Embrace Bernie Sanders’s Single-Payer Plan

Lee Fang

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/13/pharma-ceo-worries-americans-will-say-enough-is-enough-and-embrace-bernie-sanders-single-payer-plan/

Brent Saunders, the chief executive of Allergan, one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world, is concerned that in an era of increasing political polarization, Americans will become fed up and embrace the single-payer health care plan set to be unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

He shared his candid thoughts last weekend at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference in Boston, a gathering for investors and major pharmaceutical and biotech firms.

Americans have lost trust in drug companies, Saunders said, noting the industry consistently ranks lower than oil and tobacco companies in public trust surveys.

“I think we’ve got to do things to bring that trust back,” the executive added, “because ultimately, someone’s going to be in the White House. Somebody’s going to be in Congress. Someone’s going to be somewhere and going to have to say, ‘Enough’s enough. Let’s just change the whole system. Let’s go to one payer. Let’s do something.'”

While single payer has been discarded as a fringe, far-left idea over recent generations, the policy proposal has gained new traction in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Many in the Democratic Party are drifting to the ideas of Sanders and other progressives who have long advocated for expanding coverage by providing Medicare to all Americans.

Saunders observed that “the party that seems to be out of power tends to move dramatically to the left or to the right,” adding that the Republican Party during the Obama era had lurched more right-wing.

“We’re seeing almost the equal but opposite reaction here now that they’ve been swept out, the left of their party is really taken, gotten a louder voice and taken control,” Saunders continued, speaking about changes in the Democratic Party.

“And so Bernie Sanders and others in that movement had really tried to vet candidates,” Saunders noted, adding, “They wanted to go to one — that part of the party wants to go to a one-payer system.”

During his speech, Saunders touted a statement of principles he released in 2016 calling for a “social contract” with patients, promising not to use predatory pricing and other behaviors that have come to define his industry.

But if Saunders is concerned that the public may get fed up with the current system, it may have something to do with how Allergan itself has acted in recent weeks. The CEO has been under fire for taking the unprecedented step of transferring the patent of one of Allergan’s blockbuster drugs, the eye medication Restasis, to a sovereign Native American tribe as part of a bid to maintain monopoly control of the drug and its revenue.

The highly unusual legal strategy is designed to keep generic drug firms from challenging the Restasis patent, thus lowering the cost to consumers, while keeping Allergan in effective control of the revenue through its deal with the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. The Restasis patent was approved 15 years ago and was set to expire in 2014, but the Allergan deal is part of an attempt to renew the patent and extend the company’s control of the drug through 2024.

While serious questions linger about the political viability of single payer, especially for the immediate future under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, the center of gravity within the Democratic Party has shifted dramatically in favor of the universal Medicare plan that health care executives fear.