Benner, Steven

This topic draws from a variety of fields of study. We are grateful for critical comments and thoughtful suggestions on earlier drafts of this chapter from Steven Benner, Peter R. Buseck, Kenso Soai, and Frank H. Westheimer. Any mistakes and omissions remain the responsibility of the authors. 

STEVEN A. BENNER, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution... 

A writing meeting was held on March 14-16, 2005, at the National Academies Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, Irvine, California, and chaired by John Baross (University of Washington), with presentations from Steven Benner (Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution), William Baines (Rufus Scientific), and Jonathan Lunine (University of Arizona). 

Daniel Cordova, Eric A. Benner, Matthew D. Sacher, Janies J. Ranh, Jeffrey S. Sopa, George P. Lahm, Thomas P. Selby, Thomas M. Stevenson, Lindsey Flexner, Steven Gutteridge, Daniel F. Rhoades, Lihong Wu, Rejane M. Smith, and Yong Tao... 

This is where the theory, advanced by the American chemist and origin-of-life researcher Steven Benner, takes a somewhat otherworldly turn. Borate minerals are scarce in the earth s crust and may not have been around in the watery environment of early Earth. Mars, however, was drier, and evidence from a meteorite suggests that it also had boron. Thus, according to Benner, The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock. With characteristic humor, he has added It s lucky that we ended up here, nevertheless—as certainly Earth has been the better of the two planets for sustaining life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained on Mars, there may not have been a story to tell. ... 

Steven Benner is a chemist who redesigns DNA s bases, which is another name for what 1 have called the handle end of the nucleotide, the A, C, T, and G parts of DNA. Benner has chemically welded together new alternative bases with remarkable success, and he has gone on the books as saying that the naturally occurring base structure is a stupid design that he can improve. 1 take his word for it on that. 

Zhen Huang, K Christian Schneider, and Steven A, Benner... 

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