[jimbrook]

Most of you are probably aware of the DNA/protein dillema - DNA is required to synthesize protein, but protein is required for the transcription or replication of DNA.  Evolutionists sidestep this problem by saying there was an "RNA world" initially, wherein RNA spontaneously formed, and was capable of self-replication, which then evolved to the DNA model with which we are now familiar.  It has been said that a 50 nucleotide string of RNA would be required for self-replication.  I was recently reviewing general chemistry, as part of my overall continuing education as a doctor.  When I reviewed thermodynamics, and particularly the concept of Gibbs free energy, the following question hit me:  What is the Gibbs free energy of formation for a 50 nucleotide strand of RNA?  If anybody has ever figured that out, it would give us a quantitative measurement of the spontaneity of such a reaction.  Has anybody ever done the calculations?  I would not know how to do it, but I speculate that the value would be overwhelmingly large and positive, as such a molecule has a very high degree of order.  Correspondingly, I suspect that the equilibrium constant that would be derived from this information would be vanishingly small, 10 to the power of some very large negative number.  I do not know how to type a "delta" character, so instead I will use "&"   
&G = &H - T&S is the equation for Gibbs free energy, and from that we get &G = -RT ln K
Does anybody know anybody who might have some of this quantitative information on the plausibility of the "RNA world" ever having developed?  It seems to me that thermodynamics would disprove evolution.  Maybe somebody should do the research, but it just might rock the boat a bit.

[Quaff]

Most of you are probably aware..

Does anybody know anybody who might have some of this quantitative information on the plausibility of the "RNA world" ever having developed?  

"Evolution" is mathematically impossible:

"In speculating about obtaining this precise sequence by 10^500+ random trials, remember that there have been only about 10^17 seconds in the generally accepted age of the universe, so you would have had to work rather quickly."

[Borek]

Article you quote is based on common misunderstanding of how the evolution works, obviously it was written by one of ID proponents.

Go to:

http://www.bpp.com.pl/bitozoa/bitozoa.htm

download bitozoa.zip (from the download page), unpack, run, select Parameters from Option menu, select five eye vision, click restart. There is nothing but random mutation and natural selection at work - first generation of animals is clueles when it comes to eating, usually about third generation they become highly efficient. If memory serves me well there are about 2¹¹²⁰ different animals (about 1.4x10³³⁷) - you can be sure your computer has not tested them all in few minutes that have passed.

[bromidewind]

The Miller-Urey experiment on the origin of life performed in the 1950's proved that when electricity passes through water vapor and primitive atmospheric gases, amino acids are formed along with various sugars (including ribose) and lipids, which are essential for the production of nucleic acids. In their experiment, it only took about one week for there to be formation of organic compounds. Over hundreds of millions of years, there would be many opportunities for nature to form RNA, and as a result DNA and life. This experiment has reproducible results, which have been further studied.

<a href="http://www.issol.org/miller/miller1953.pdf">A production of amino acids under possible primitive Earth conditions</a>
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1664678/?tool=pubmed">Prebiotic materials from on and off the early Earth</a>
<a href="http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/19/10/1645">Evolution of amino acid frequencies in proteins over deep time</a>
<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14966-volcanic-lightning-may-have-sparked-life-on-earth.html?feedId=online-news_rss20">Volcanic lightning may have sparked life on earth</a>

Remember that the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy in a closed system increases with time. Earth is not a closed system; it is heavily influenced by the Sun. So the spontaneous production of RNA is feasible without violating thermodynamics.