Summary: The Chemistry Behind Evolution - Molecules that ORGANIZE THEMSELVES! Episode 55 by Scott Unger (Click here to directly access the MP3) (Access the full text transcript) The slow and steady process of evolution takes billions of years for genetic changes across generations for single celled organisms to evolve into the complex life that’s all around us today. But what came before that first single celled microbe came into existence? What was it about the chemicals in the primordial soup that brought them together into the first cell? This question is one that scientists have been looking to answer for a long time, and researcher Dr. Pasquale Stano has made an important discovery - biological molecules can SELF ORGANIZE! Using a chemical called POPC to form cell-wall like liposomes (like the one in the picture above) Stano’s team observed that 83 biological molecules responsible for creating a fluorescent protein were able to draw themselves together non-randomly into the same liposome! Listen to the Podcast to learn more… Scott Unger is the producer / director of Experimental. He’s also a career science communicator with a background in Microbiology, and spent seven years working in a series of laboratories before moving into science writing. He is an alumni of the Banff Science Communications Program. Learn more about Scott from his LinkedIn résumé. You can also follow Scott on Twitter @scottu487.
