Evolution - some notes and thoughts

What are the minimum number of amino acids required to support life?
What is the probability of their forming?

I have read that the minimum number is "20."

How many amino acids are required for the simplest of proteins? (and simplest of life forms?)
What's the probability of that chain forming? (only left hand, not right hand)

I have read that, theoretically, the simplest organism that can self-replicate would have 124 proteins of 400 amino acids each. The simplest one KNOWN has 625 proteins.


WHAT IS THE PROBABILITY OF ONE PROTEIN OF 400 LEFT HAND AMINO ACIDS FORMING if there was a "pure" mixture of left and right hand amino acids of all types?

400 - 20 = 380
400 total amino acids needed, less 20 (glycine only comes in 1 form) = 380 acids

1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 380 times is the probability of getting only left hand amino acids to combine
This equals 1/2^380 = 1/10^114

Remember, this does not take into account the information content (sequence), but only the validity of the amino acids.

To get 124 such proteins for self-replicating life, we would multiply the above result (1/10^114) 124 times.

1/10^114 * 1/10^114 * 1/10^114 (124 times) = 1/10 ^ 14,136

Folks, we've only begun to look at the improbability of proteins forming by chance and we've hit a wall. There is NO WAY that a chance of 1 in 10^14,136 could be realized.

There are 10^9 electrons in the universe. If I could pick one, color it red, release it somewhere in the universe - could you randomly pick an electron and have it be the correct one? You'd have to correctly pick the special electron 179 times in a row to equal the probability / improbability of just getting left hand amino acids to form a long chain!