Editing Proteinoid (section)

==History==

In trying to uncover the intermediate stages of [[abiogenesis]], scientist [[Sidney W. Fox]] in the 1950s and 1960s, studied the spontaneous formation of [[peptide]] structures under conditions that might plausibly have existed early in Earth's history.<ref name="hazen">{{Cite book |last=Hazen |first=Robert M. |title=Genesis: the scientific quest for life's origin |date=2005 |publisher=Joseph Henry Press |isbn=978-0-309-09432-0 |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>{{rp|199-201}} He demonstrated that [[amino acid]]s could spontaneously form small chains called peptides. In one of his experiments, he allowed amino acids to dry out as if puddled in a warm, dry spot in prebiotic conditions. He found that, as they dried, the amino acids formed long, often cross-linked, thread-like microscopic [[polypeptide]] globules, he named "proteinoid microspheres".<ref name="foxexp">{{cite web | title=Origins of life | vauthors = Walsh B | publisher=University of Arizona | at=Part 4: Experimental studies of the origins of life | date=January 13, 2008 | url=http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/courses/EEB105/lectures/Origins_of_Life/origins.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113152408/http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/courses/EEB105/lectures/Origins_of_Life/origins.html | archive-date=January 13, 2008 | url-status=dead | access-date=April 7, 2019 }}</ref>