How did life begin on earth?

Question asked by: mrquestion

Asked on: 26 Jan 2010

The answer is that no-one knows.

There have been several theories advanced but they are all just that - theories, which are more or less likely to be correct.

Whether life even started on earth or came from elsewhere is an open question, with some thinking comets, material from other worlds or in other whacky cases people think some alien lifeform seeded the earth with the building blocks of life... a bit too far-fetched that one.

The thing about the 'external source' methods is that they solve less of the question than you may think: they just push the question back to, ok, so how did life evolve on the comet / other planet? We don't explain life forming that way, we just push back the question, and may be further from the answer in fact if the chemical basis of planet X is very different from our own.

For a long time the sea and potentially somewhere quite hot in the sea has been thought to be where life could have begun, potentially where there is an energy source of heat from the earth and natural rock structures that could hold organic molecules and be a natural catalyst to their production; but other possible sites for life originating are now being taken more and more seriously.

So the answer is: no-one knows really!
By: knowitall
Replied at: 26 Jan 2010
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