Читать книгу Astrobiology - Charles S. Cockell - Страница 88

We now turn to another essential requirement for building life. All the molecules that have been discussed must be assembled in a liquid. Life requires a solvent for chemical reactions to occur. Chemical reactions cannot occur efficiently when a system is completely desiccated, as the reactants that we need for chemical reactions cannot easily move and interact.

This solvent must have several characteristics which include physical characteristics that allow molecules essential to biological function to be moved around rapidly enough to allow chemical reactions to occur. The substance must support the carbon-based chemistry we have been discussing, or variations on it, without destroying the molecules.