We May Have Been Wrong About the Origin of Life

Life crawled out of the oceans onto land, right? New research suggests that this popular theory could be wrong.

We’ve had the idea that life began in the oceans since the 1920s, when it was first put forward. This was cemented in our minds in the 1950s by the classic Miller-Urey experiment from which scientists hypothesized that the ocean-atmospheric cycle of early earth could have been the perfect conditions to instigate life ... but there were many unanswered questions.

Since then, biogenesis researchers—those are the folks who study how life began—have been kind of obsessed with finding that key catalyst that would have brought chemical components together for the first time. And research from the past several years has shown that in some situations, that special sauce could have been UV radiation. And while some teams HAVE been able to recreate the building blocks of life with UV light, no one has yet been able to successfully perform these transformations in experiments that replicate seawater. Meaning that our whole ‘life crawls onto land from the oceans’ idea….could be wrong?

And here’s another problem: while water is a definite requirement for life on earth ...the chemical properties of straight up H2O actually break down proteins. Including things that are made of protein—nucleic acids like DNA and RNA, the genetic material that hold the blueprint for all living things. These days, living cells tightly control their water balance to protect their insides from water degradation, but...how are proteins supposed to have formed IN a substance that actively attacks and degrades them? Scientists now call this ‘the water paradox’.

#oceans #land #water #earth #originioflife #seeker #science #elements

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We’ve been wrong about the origins of life for 90 years
A study published last month in Nature Microbiology suggests the last common ancestor of all living cells fed on hydrogen gas in a hot iron-rich environment, much like that within the vents. Advocates of the conventional theory have been skeptical that these findings should change our view of the origins of life. But the hydrothermal vent hypothesis, which is often described as exotic and controversial, explains how living cells evolved the ability to obtain energy, in a way that just wouldn’t have been possible in a primordial soup.

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[stephenr]

now i understand my addiction to the shower, im just reliving my primordial wetandry cycle

[MrRickyw]

I remember in High School the teacher describing water as a solvent. Later water was described as a building block of life. I asked for clarification, I got back a blank stare and the subject was changed. Just thinking out loud...

[Sciencerely]

As a stem cell biologist, I think it's so amazing that we still can learn so much about the origins of life. To think how such a beautiful structure like DNA is so stable but can also be slightly modify over time to allow evolution was created is just mind-boggling. Then we also have enzymes which catalyze concentrated reactions in our cells and allow us to create ordered structures in the unordered universe (I made a video about this). Just last week I had an online seminar given by a professor who's trying to create life forms from scratch and that research is so fascinating!

[fugslayernominee]

Ohh that puddle must be the one featured in Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy😂

[greenisnotacreativecolour]

I was under the assumption that rockpools were already the general consensus, not the open ocean. That's what I was taught at university twenty years ago at least...

[tjkaz]

According to John and Dave, The 'special' sauce was in fact soy sauce.

[KarstenJohansson]

I always assumed life began in the mud. This video doesn't say that, but does make me think it even more.

[xanderellem]

So what I've learned from videos like this is that my body is 60% water, that water is technically lava and now, that we were "born" from radiation. I am a living lava creature born of radiation... I am an x-man😎

[TommoCarroll]

Ok this is really cool. I love seeing ideas that challenge established ideas!

[filmfan]

“...now with nucleotides and protein and fat precursors we’ve got all the moving parts to get life going...”

Not true, just having nucleotides, proteins and fats does not mean that they are automatically in any mechanical configuration. Having steel and rubber does not equate to a wheel and tyre.

The bear minimum needed for life to get going is actually staggering complex and coordinated. You need an engine to produce the energy needed to overcome entropy (with all its many molecular machines to keep it running), a repair system (with all its many molecular machines to facilitate the reversal of wear and damage), and an information system to coordinate it all (with all its many molecular machines to read, write, copy, correct and process the highly specific information). That’s far from just nucleotides, proteins and lipids!

[randhir]

Love her enthusiasm when she is talking about all of this exciting stuff!

[Khannea]

Voice 10 out of 10. Damn she sounds wholesome.

[ToddPlummer]

great video. I'm a high school biology teacher and will definitely add this to my Miller-Urey experiment lesson. Thanks for the clear explanation.

[cesariiiemaas]

"Sum stuff growing in a puddle" will be my graduation quote

[oolong]

Hasn't the "primordial soup" always been depicted in pools and shallow water? In movies it's always shown as some kind of bubbling pit not in the ocean...

[drlegendre]

".. not everyone is in agreement on this."

Understatement of a lifetime.

[brandonsballing]

This “water paradox” doesn’t exist. Yes it’s true water degraded proteins. But remember, the first “cell” (just RNA and phospholipids) had a phospholipid bilayer (precursor to the cell walls and cell membrane). This membrane of phosphates and lipids had a hydrophobic exterior that prevented water from entering and degrading the RNA and proteins.

[aluisious]

Since the 80s I have never heard that life started in the ocean and crawled on land. It was always speculated to be a puddle.

[marvininthemiddle]

There’s nothing more refreshing than drinking cool water. I often look at it, perfectly clear and harmless looking, and wonder if it would be like drinking gasoline for an extraterrestrial.

[anthonyp]

An experiment I want them to make a video on is “Biparental mtDNA inheritance”.