• Question: How did life begin?

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      Asked by Thingamagik to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Sarwat, Shreesha on 10 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: Anaïs Pujol

        Anaïs Pujol answered on 10 Mar 2015:

        Have you ever heard about primordial soup? It is the first theory proposed in 1924 about the origin of life in an unfriendly atmosphere. The Primordial Soup Theory suggest that life began in a pond or ocean as a result of the combination of chemicals from the atmosphere and some form of energy (light) to make amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which would then evolve into all the species. The atmosphere of earth at the beginning was totally different from the current one. No Oxygen, majority of methane, water, amonia and hydrogen. So in 1950, Chemist Stanley Miller and physicist Harold Urey tested this hypothesis and indeed succeed to form amino acids.
        However, we know now that these gases were notthe only ones responsible of life begin but also minerals and metals which were from earth composition at this time, for instance Iron which played a role in life apparition. Indeed Iron as a catalytic role.

      • Photo: Peter Maskell

        Peter Maskell answered on 10 Mar 2015:

        see anais

      • Photo: Sarwat Iqbal

        Sarwat Iqbal answered on 12 Mar 2015:

        we can develop theories about how life on Earth began. The main theory is that living things developed from molecules that could replicate, or copy, themselves, rather like DNA does.
        One of the first clues is amino acids.
        It could not be the organic chemicals that came first, but maybe the process of self organization.
        There are inorganic chemicals and metals that can organize themselves if we provide them right conditions. The process of metabolism came first, and then organic chemicals adopted this process.

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