Conditions for Life on Earth

News

Harvard scientists determine early Earth may have been a water worldA new study suggests Earth’s primordial ocean 3 to 4 billion years ago may have been much larger than it is today, and possibly covered the entire planet.

The right mixture of salts to get life startedA new study shows how a blend of salts in the presence of heat flows may have contributed to the formation of the first self-replicating biomolecules.

Lab-made primordial soup yields RNA basesThe chemical feat strengthens theory that the first life on Earth was based on RNA.

How did life begin?The question of how life began is one of the most profound in science, and although many theories exist, scientists still cannot agree on an answer.

Flooding Earth’s atmosphere with oxygen may not have needed a triggering eventBuilding an oxygen-rich world doesn’t require volcanism, supercontinent breakups or the rise of land plants — just nutrient cycling, a study finds.

Websites

The origin of life: The conditions that sparked life on EarthBy identifying a list of nine essential environmental requirements, they suggest that the most likely location for the birthplace of life is a nuclear geyser where material and energy regularly circulated.

How Structure Arose in the Primordial Soup | Quanta MagazineLife’s first epoch saw incredible advances — cells, metabolism and DNA, to name a few. Researchers are resurrecting ancient proteins to illuminate the biological dark ages.

Eight ingredients for life in space

Journal Articles

Re-conceptualizing the origins of life | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering SciencesOver the last several hundred years of scientific progress, we have arrived at a deep understanding of the non-living world. We have not yet achieved an analogous, deep understanding of the living world. The origins of life is our best chance at ...

Requirements and limits for life in the context of exoplanetsOur understanding of life on exoplanets and exomoons must be based on what we know about life on Earth. Liquid water is the common ecological requirement for Earth life. Temperature on an exoplanet is the first parameter to consider both because of its influence on liquid water and because it can be directly estimated from orbital and climate models of exoplanetary systems. Life needs some water, but deserts show that even a little can be enough. Only a small amount of light from the central star is required to provide for photosynthesis. Some nitrogen must be present for life and the presence of oxygen would be a good indicator of photosynthesis and possibly complex life.

Podcasts

Videos

The mysterious origins of life on EarthBillions of years ago, simple organic compounds assembled into more complex coalitions that could grow and reproduce. At the time, Earth had widespread volcanic activity and a hostile atmosphere that made it almost devoid of a suitable environment for living things. So where did life begin? Luka Wright searches for the cradle of life that gave rise to the billions of species that inhabit our planet. [Directed by Nick Hilditch, narrated by Addison Anderson].

Long Reads

The Big PictureAlready internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerg...

A Short History of Nearly EverythingIn Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we ha...

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