Microspheres also join together and electrically signal to each other when stimulated by light. Scientists struggle with the question whether or not they played a role in the development of life. Sidney W. Fox, one of the pioneer scientists in this area, believes they did play a part. He believes that these thermal proteins assembled into microspheres and then protocells, leading to the evolution of nucleic acids. The idea challenges conventional thinking that nucleic acids needed to exist before the arrival of any form of living cell.
Thermal proteins compose the protocell membrane that acts in many ways like a living cell membrane.
Thermal proteins may have been the first step in evolution. The cell- like structures could be the forebears of organisms like bacteria, archaea, and eucharya. If the theory proves correct and life evolved from a highly determined chemical sequence, life is likely to occur elsewhere in the universe.