Recreating The 'Shocking' Origin Of Life In A Lab

Thursday, August 6, 2015 - 17:00 in Paleontology & Archaeology

You know that scene in Frankenstein, where the doctor uses electricity to bring the monster to life? While a work of science fiction, electricity does play a key role in all life on earth. Electrical impulses are all around us, powering just about everything we think and do. But how did the first life get that vital spark? Back when the first life originated on Earth, the planet was a hot, unwelcome place--a mix of chemicals, rocks, and not much else. Somehow, in the midst of all this unpleasantness, something came alive for the first time. To find out how, scientists recently recreated some of these primordial conditions in the lab to find out how. They built chemical gardens, tiny replicas of the conditions at hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, where life might have originated. Like their real-world counterparts, the chemical gardens resemble chimneys rising from the...

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