scholarly journals The origin of life on the earth / Translated from the Russian by Ann Synge.

1957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin ◽  
Ann. Synge
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

General discussion after session V

1988 ◽  
Vol 325 (1587) ◽  
pp. 611-618 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Applied Mathematics ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Organic Chemical ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Emergence Of Life

N. C. Wickramasinghe ( Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, University College, Cardiff, U. K. ). The question of the origin of life is, of course, one of the most important scientific questions and it is also one of the most difficult. One is inevitably faced here with a situation where there are very few empirical facts of direct relevance and perhaps no facts relating to the actual transition from organic material to material that can even remotely be described as living. The time perspective of events that relate to this problem has already been presented by Dr Chang. Uncertainty still persists as to the actual first moment of the origin or the emergence of life on the Earth. At some time between 3800 and 3300 Ma BP the first microscopic living systems seem to have emerged. There is a definite moment in time corresponding to a sudden appearance of cellular-type living systems. Now, traditionally the evolution of carbonaceous compounds which led to the emergence of life on Earth could be divided into three principal steps and I shall just remind you what those steps are. The first step is the production of chemical building blocks that lead to the origin of the organic molecules necessary as a prerequisite for the evolution of life. Step two can be described in general terms as prebiotic evolution, the arrangement of these chemical units into some kind of sequence of precursor systems that come almost up to life but not quite; and then stage three is the early biological evolution which actually effects the transition from proto-cellular organic-type forms into truly cellular living systems. The transition is from organic chemistry, prebiotic chemistry to biochemistry. Those are the three principal stages that have been defined by traditional workers in the field, the people who, as Dr Chang said, have had the courage to make these queries and attempt to answer them. Ever since the classic experiments where organic materials were synthesized in the laboratory a few decades back, it was thought that the first step, the production of organic chemical units, is important for the origin of life on the Earth, and that this had to take place in some location on the Earth itself.

How Did It All Begin?: The Self-Assembly of Organic Molecules and the Origin of Cellular Life

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
The Self ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Cellular Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Movies are the myths of late-20th century western culture. Because of the power of films likeETto capture our imagination, we are more likely than past generations to accept the possibility that life exists elsewhere in our galaxy. Such a myth can be used to sketch the main themes of this chapter, which concern the origin of life on the Earth.

scholarly journals Scum of the Earth: A Hypothesis for Prebiotic Multi-Compartmentalised Environments

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Craig Robert Walton ◽  
Oliver Shorttle
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Surface Environment

Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or unstable, limiting their utility. Here, we develop a new hypothesis for an origin of life environment that capitalises upon, and mitigates the limitations of, prebiotic compartments: multi-compartmentalised layers in the near surface environment—a ’scum’. Scum-type environments benefit from many of the same ensemble-based advantages as microbial biofilms. In particular, scum layers mediate diffusion with the wider environments, favouring preservation and sharing of early informational molecules, along with the selective concentration of compatible prebiotic compounds. Biofilms are among the earliest traces imprinted by life in the rock record: we contend that prebiotic equivalents of these environments deserve future experimental investigation.

The Origin of Life on the Earth

1994 ◽  
Vol 271 (4) ◽  
pp. 76-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie E. Orgel
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Protective effect of clay minerals on adsorbed nucleic acid against UV radiation: possible role in the origin of life

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Scappini ◽  
F. Casadei ◽  
R. Zamboni ◽  
M. Franchi ◽  
E. Gallori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Protective Effect ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
Uv Radiation ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Uv Photons

The effect of UV radiation on solutions of free and clay-adsorbed DNA has been investigated. It turns out that clay (montmorillonite/kaolinite) adsorbed nucleic acid undergoes less radiation damage than free nucleic acid. Our laboratory experiments have an astronomical counterpart in terms of solar irradiance on the Earth. An origin of life scenario is proposed where ubiquitous clay minerals lead the surface chemistry of the molecules relevant to the biological evolution and at the same time protect them from the deadly rainfall of UV photons.

The Origin of Life on the Earth

AIBS Bulletin ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
W. H. Camp ◽  
A. I. Oparin ◽  
Ann Synge
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

scholarly journals Scum of the Earth: a hypothesis for prebiotic multi-compartmentalised environments}

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Walton ◽  
Oliver Shorttle
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Chemistry ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Surface Environment

Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or unstable, limiting their utility. Here, we develop a new hypothesis for an origin of life environment, that capitalises upon, and mitigates the limitations of, prebiotic compartments: multi-compartmentalised layers in the near surface environment --- a 'scum'. Scum-type environments benefit from many of the same ensemble-based advantages as microbial biofilms. In particular, scum layers mediate diffusion with the wider environment, favouring preservation and sharing of early informational molecules, along with the selective concentration of compatible prebiotic compounds. Biofilms are among the earliest traces imprinted by life in the rock record: we contend that prebiotic equivalents of these environments deserve future experimental investigation.

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