<h2>Building Blocks of Life</h2>
<p>Researchers from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/aiop-lbb120817.php">just produced more evidence</a> that life could have begun in space. The research team showed that some organic molecules that form the building blocks of life could develop in icy films subjected to radiation within a vacuum, opening the possibility that <a href="https://futurism.com/new-research-may-explain-the-origin-of-complex-life-on-earth/">life on this planet</a> might actually be extraterrestrial in origin.</p>
<p>The research team created thin films of ice containing methane and/or oxygen and irradiated them with electron beams. The study was conducted in vacuum conditions, mimicking the high-vacuum conditions of space, which opened doors for specialized analysis techniques.</p>
<figure id="attachment_115494" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="hoverZoomLink wp-image-115494 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/12/Meteor_Crater_-_Arizona-1200x800.jpg" alt="Space-based image of an extraterrestrial crater. This research shows that the building blocks of life could form in inhospitable vacuum conditions like these." width="781" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory</figcaption></figure>
<p>The frozen films were bombarded with secondary electrons, known as low-energy electrons (LEEs). These electrons are produced when matter is hit by high-energy radiation, like the ultraviolet light, cosmic rays, and other charged particles that fly through space. LEEs themselves have enough energy to spur further chemical reactions.</p>
<p>The Sherbrooke experiments were designed to see how these LEEs interacted with the icy films.</p>
<p>According to the study, published in the <a href="http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.5003898"><i>Journal of Chemical Physics</i></a>, the group found both direct and indirect evidence in the ice for a number of organic molecules. Propylene, ethane and acetylene developed in films of frozen methane, while ethanol developed in irradiated frozen methane and oxygen. The team also found indirect evidence for small organic molecules like acetic acid, formaldehyde, and methanol — all of which are <a href="https://www.space.com/33193-organic-molecule-planet-forming-disk.html">potential building blocks for life</a>.</p>
<h2>Searching for Answers</h2>
<p>Science has not yet proven the exact origins of life as we know it here on Earth. We&#8217;re not even sure if life began forming here on Earth, or if it <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-have-uncovered-new-evidence-of-the-origins-of-life-on-earth/">started elsewhere in the universe</a> and simply managed to flourish on this planet. <figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/ancient-supernovae-it-came-from-outer-space-infographic/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/07/HomeThumb-5.jpg" alt="Ancient Supernovae: It Came From Outer Space  [Infographic]" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/ancient-supernovae-it-came-from-outer-space-infographic/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure></p>
<p>The experiment does not prove that life began in space, yet it does provide evidence that that building blocks of life could have come from space. The conditions produced in the experiment are easily found in outer space on objects like comets, asteroids, and even moons. Organic molecules formed on a comet could have made their way onto Earth and then begun the journey toward <a href="https://futurism.com/new-research-may-explain-the-origin-of-complex-life-on-earth/">evolving into complex life</a>.</p>
<p>This development shines more light on the potential <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/new-model-origins-life-earth/">origins of life on Earth</a> and could also help give insight into how to look for life elsewhere in the universe. If similar conditions were achieved on other space rocks, these same building blocks of life may have found their way to other places in the universe.</p>


The life all around us could have started in ice-covered grains of dust.

Scientists find new evidence that life could have begun in space

Hard Science

The research found that some building blocks of life could form in frozen films of methane and oxygen in a radiation-filled vacuum.

Scientists Find New Evidence That Life Could Have Begun In Space

This could point to space as the place of origin for life on Earth.

<h2>Moon Life</h2>
<p>New evidence has emerged supporting the possibility that Saturn&#8217;s moon Enceladus has the potential to host life. Not only does this evidence point to the ability of the moon to harbor life, but that life could have also evolved into complex organisms.</p>
<p>NASA <a href="https://futurism.com/5-nasa-says-saturns-moon-has-ingredients-necessary-for-a-habitable-environment/">previously announced</a> that Enceladus has many of the “ingredients needed for a habitable environment.” A new study published in <a style="font-style: italic" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0289-8">Nature Astronomy </a>explains exactly how the moon can sustain a global salty ocean under its icy crust, and how such an environment can be conducive to life developing and thriving.</p>
<p>Researchers have taken the Cassini mission&#8217;s observations of Enceladus and attempted to match them with computer models depicting various possibilities for how such an ocean could form. The researchers concluded that Enceladus&#8217;s rocky core is porous, water is heated while traveling through the core and is expelled through narrow openings in the crust. This process forms hot water jets, which are especially prevalent in the moon&#8217;s southern polar region.</p>
<figure style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-109752 size-large aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/11/1106enceladus_0.jpg" alt="Image credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH" width="820" height="345" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Chemical Reactions</h2>
<p>Studying these hydrothermal vents could be the best bet for determining whether Enceladus could foster life. Lead author <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/aliens-enceladus-saturn-icy-moon-porous-core-heat-702774">Gaël Choblet</a>, from the French National Center for Scientific Research, spoke with <i>Newsweek</i>, saying, “If a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.05804">new theory</a> published last year is correct, then powerful hydrothermal activity could have been occurring since the formation of the moon, possibly as much as the age of the solar system.” Choblet was referring to a study pertaining to how the moons of Saturn could be heating.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the heating provides an adequate timeline for life to develop. David A Rothery, professor of Planetary Geosciences at the Open University, U.K. explained, “Chemical reactions are going on even today. If it’s going on today it could have been going on a billion years into the past, and that’s long enough for life to get started—and to have evolved beyond the very most basic stages. It could be quite a complex microbial community down there and we’d love to study it.”</p>
<p>Studying how life began and evolved on other planets could provide further insight into how life on our planet began. This is not by any means a confirmation of extraterrestrial life on Enceladus, or any other celestial body, yet it is compelling evidence in support of further research into the very real possibility.</p>


Studying the moon's hydrothermal vents could be the best bet for determining whether Enceladus could foster life.

We may finally understand how alien life could survive on Saturn's moon

Observations from the Cassini mission to Saturn has allowed researchers to better understand how the moon Enceladus could sustain a global subsurface ocean.

We May Finally Understand How Alien Life Could Survive on Saturn's Moon

Hydrothermic vents could be a hotbed for alien evolution.

We May Finally Understand How Alien Life Could Survive on Saturn’s Moon

<h2>A Splash of Life</h2>
<p>Since Darwin&#8217;s time, scientists have generally agreed that life on Earth started from &#8220;warm little ponds&#8221; — or the so-called primordial soup that was rich in organic compounds. Life began in its most primitive forms from these waters some 3.8 billion years ago but, how it actually happened has been the subject of endless study and debate. Most recently, a team of researchers from <a href="http://www.mcmaster.ca">McMaster University</a> and the <a href="https://www.mpg.de/institutes">Max Planck Institute</a> in Germany is contributing to the discussion.</p>
<p>In a study published in the journal of the <i><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/26/1710339114" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></i><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/26/1710339114" target="_blank"> (PNAS)</a>, researchers led by McMaster scientists Ben K.D. Pearce and Ralph Pudritz, together with Dmitry Semenov and Thomas Henning of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, suggested that to understand how life began, one needs to look at Earth as it was billions of years ago. Life started at a time when the Earth&#8217;s surface was continuously changing, transforming, and pelted by meteorites —  some of which landed in those warm little ponds.</p>
<p>These space rocks carried with them essential elements that helped to jump-start life, including essential nucleotide components that formed RNA polymers. &#8220;As our study shows, astronomy provide a vital part of the answer. The details of how our solar system formed have direct consequences for the origin of life on Earth,&#8221; Henning said in <a href="http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/meteorites-may-have-brought-building-blocks-of-life-to-earth/" target="_blank">a press release</a>. A combination of wet and dry conditions allowed for the polymers to bond and, eventually, for RNA to replicate itself— non-living components creating life, <a href="https://futurism.com/new-research-may-explain-the-origin-of-complex-life-on-earth/" target="_blank">as another study said</a>.</p>
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<h2>A Tough Start</h2>
<p>Clearly, life had to emerge during a difficult period in this planet&#8217;s geological history, when the atmosphere was not yet fully formed, as explored in <a href="https://futurism.com/life-may-have-emerged-on-earth-earlier-than-we-previously-thought/" target="_blank">another study</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s the Holy Grail of experimental origins-of-life chemistry,&#8221; Pearce added. What was crucial was the formation of RNAs that learned to self-replicate, which eventually gave rise to DNA development. &#8220;DNA is too complex to have been the first aspect of life to emerge,&#8221; Pudritz says. &#8220;It had to start with something else, and that is RNA.&#8221;</p>
<p>All of these recent findings adding to theories of the origins of life lead to the same outcome, as Pudritz pointed out. &#8220;Because there are so many inputs from so many different fields, it&#8217;s kind of amazing that it all hangs together,&#8221; he said in the press release. &#8220;Each step led very naturally to the next. To have them all lead to a clear picture in the end is saying there&#8217;s something right about this.&#8221; Their study clarified, however, that these primordial ponds were more likely to contain the ingredients that triggered life than hydrothermal vents, as another popular theory suggests.</p>
<p>If meteorites landed in ponds on Earth, it&#8217;s highly possible that they also peppered other parts of the early Solar System as meteorites were more common during that time. This suggests the possibility that what triggered life on Earth could&#8217;ve also happened on other planets, a theory that Pearce and Pudritz plan to explore next year. The origins of life on Earth could help us to find traces of life elsewhere.</p>


Meteorites may have carried ingredients for life.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence of the origins of life on Earth

A new study from McMaster University and the Max Planck Institute suggests that meteorites that fell into warm puddles during the early years of the Earth could've been the trigger for life.

Scientists Have Uncovered New Evidence of the Origins of Life on Earth

If true, could this phenomenon have also triggered life on other planets?

<h2>New Evidence</h2>
<p>Life on Earth is getting older. No, that isn&#8217;t a reference to people living longer (although <a href="https://futurism.com/a-dutch-study-claims-to-project-the-maximum-human-lifespan/" target="_blank">that is happening</a>, too). It refers to how long ago life first emerge on this planet. This year alone, <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-just-found-fossils-containing-the-oldest-evidence-of-life-on-earth/" target="_blank">a number of studies</a> have asserted that <a href="https://futurism.com/newly-discovered-fossils-reveal-earliest-complex-life-on-earth/" target="_blank">life is older than we believed</a>, and now, researchers from the <a href="http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/" target="_blank">University of Tokyo</a> have found fossil evidence suggesting that life was around some 150 million years earlier than we previously thought. Their study has been published in <i><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v549/n7673/full/nature24019.html?foxtrotcallback=true" target="_blank">Nature</a>.</i></p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/when-did-life-on-earth-first-appear/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/05/Homepage-Thumbnail-30.jpg" alt="How Life Evolved on Earth (Infographic)" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/when-did-life-on-earth-first-appear/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>The researchers discovered these early signs of life while analyzing carbon isotopes in sedimentary rocks taken from Labrador, a region in northeastern Canada. The rock samples date from a period in geological history called the <a href="http://www.geologypage.com/2014/01/eoarchean-era.html" target="_blank">Eoarchean era</a>, which occurred some 3.6 to 4 billion years ago.</p>
<p>This suggests that ancient life on the planet could well have been around some 3.95 billion years ago. Prior to this discovery, life on Earth was believed to have started with the emergence of the first single-celled organisms <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth" target="_blank">3.8 billion years ago</a>. A billion years later, <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-may-have-discovered-the-trigger-for-complex-life-on-earth/" target="_blank">complex (multicellular) life exploded</a> during the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/28098-cambrian-period.html" target="_blank">Cambrian period</a>, an era some 541 million years back.</p>
<h2>The Resilience of Life</h2>
<p>The University of Tokyo researchers didn&#8217;t discover a fossil like those left over by dinosaurs. Instead, they found what&#8217;s known as biogenic graphite — fossilized remains of early cells left as chemical imprints on graphite and carbonate. Similar chemical signatures were also found in Eoarchean rock samples from the Isua Greenstone Belt in Greenland, although those were <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n1/full/ngeo2025.html?foxtrotcallback=true" target="_blank">only 3.7 billion years old</a>.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7HiFxKK2yjU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The Eoarchean era has long been considered a time period inhospitable to life — the Earth&#8217;s crust was new, and the atmosphere was still rather heavy and practically devoid of oxygen. However, the discovery of these biogenic samples suggests that life was already hard at work as early as then and tougher than we expected.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if life could exist under these difficult conditions on Earth, life beyond Earth might be able to do the same. As the researchers pointed out in their paper, &#8220;The discovery of the biogenic graphite enables geochemical study of the biogenic materials themselves and will provide insight into early life not only on Earth but also on other planets.&#8221;</p>


This could help in our hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Life may have emerged on Earth earlier than we previously thought

University of Tokyo researchers have discovered fossil evidence that suggests life on Earth started earlier than expected.

Life May Have Emerged on Earth Earlier Than We Previously Thought

The researchers discovered earlier signs of life while analyzing carbon isotopes in sedimentary rocks taken from northeastern Canada. 

<h2>Simply Complex</h2>
<p>Life remains one of the greatest and most beautiful mysteries of the universe. For one, it continues to baffle scientists that we only seem to have found life here on Earth and nowhere else in the vast expanse of space. For the time being, at least. The origins of life itself, from the simple to the complex, is a story of scientific wonder — one that is still being written today.</p>
<p>In a recent study published in the journal <i><a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/9/170376" target="_blank">Royal Society Open Science</a></i>, researchers from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwaterstrand (Wits University), Johannesburg in South Africa discussed a discovery regarding how complex life evolved on Earth. &#8220;Life was a chance event, there is no doubt about that,&#8221; researcher Pierre Durand from the Evolution of Complexity Laboratory said in <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-09/complex-life-evolved-out-of-the-chance-coupling-of-small-molecules.html" target="_blank">a press release</a>.</p>
<p>This chance event Durand was referring to was that small strands of molecules linked up to form larger molecules capable of self-replication. Through a chemical reaction called ligation, simple RNA molecules join with other RNA molecules thanks to an enzyme they possessed. Supposedly, RNAs randomly connected with each other and replicated, thereby jump starting the process of life. &#8220;Molecular trade-offs in RNA ligases affected the modular emergence of complex ribozymes at the origin of life,&#8221; Durrand explained.</p>
<figure id="attachment_102339" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-infographicListing wp-image-102339" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/09/RNA_molecule_600x300px-600x300.jpg" alt="origin of life rna ligation complex life evolution" width="600" height="300" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: Wits University</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Life&#8217;s Simple Beginnings</h2>
<p>In their research, Durrand and his colleagues successfully demonstrated how it&#8217;s possible for small, non-living molecules to become larger molecules capable of reproducing themselves. This is a crucial step in a series of many that made it possible for life to evolve over a long period of time. “Something needed to happen for these small molecules to interact and form longer, more complex molecules and that happened completely by chance,” Durand added.</p>
<p>Even more surprising was how the smallest of these simple molecules (a 40-nucleotide RNA) was smaller than what the researchers expected. Nucleotides are the building blocks of nucleic acids, which in turn make up RNA and DNA. &#8220;The small molecules are very promiscuous and can join other pieces to themselves,&#8221; Durrand explained. &#8220;What was interesting was that these smaller molecules were smaller than we had originally thought.&#8221;</p>
<p>As our understanding of how<a href="https://futurism.com/newly-discovered-fossils-reveal-earliest-complex-life-on-earth/" target="_blank"> complex life</a> came to be continues to evolve, we learn more about what makes life possible. Furthermore, now that we know how complex life came to be on Earth, perhaps we&#8217;ll be better equipped to find life elsewhere. Whether complex life started on the oceans — as is widely accepted — <a href="https://futurism.com/new-fossil-evidences-suggests-life-may-have-originated-on-land-and-not-in-the-oceans/" target="_blank">or on land</a>, what&#8217;s clear is that it started at <a href="https://futurism.com/earth-may-have-hosted-complex-life-much-earlier-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">a particular moment</a> in Earth&#8217;s history.</p>


Now that we know how complex life came to be on Earth, perhaps we’ll be better equipped to find life elsewhere.

New research may explain the origin of complex life on Earth

Cell division, 3D-structured micrograph

Research from Wits University in South Africa shows how small non-living RNA molecules combined to form larger, self-replicating molecules.

New Research May Explain the Origin of Complex Life on Earth

“Life was a chance event, there is no doubt about that.”

<h2>Key to Life</h2>
<p>Researchers at the Stony Brook University Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have partnered to discover more about how the basic molecules for life, proteins, DNA, and RNA, could have <a href="https://m.phys.org/news/2017-08-chemical-blocks-life.html">arisen from simpler chemicals</a> created at the beginning of our Universe.</p>
<p>Scientists have been working to discover the origins of life on our planet for as long as science has existed, probably even longer. We have certainly <a href="https://futurism.com/new-theory-for-life-suggests-it-was-not-an-accident-of-biology-it-was-physics/?src=featured">come a long way</a> from where our understanding began, yet we cannot completely map the evolution of life on Earth from the Big Bang today. While we are likely a very long way from that happening, if such knowledge is even possible to attain, each discovery still fills in a tiny hole of that missing information.</p>
<p>The researchers have devised a new computational model that may help to explain how chemical building blocks could have been stringed together to form longer chains with the ability to encode protein information which would have spurred the earliest forms of evolution. Their finding have been published in the online version of the <i><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1620179114">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences </a></i>(PNAS) journal.</p>
<figure style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-97958 size-large aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/08/DNA_com_GGN.jpg" alt="Image credit: Wikimedia Commons" width="820" height="512" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Foundational Folding</h2>
<p>According to Ken Dill, lead author, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Laufer Center, &#8220;The theoretical study helps to understand a missing link in the evolution of chemistry into biology and how a population of molecular building blocks could, over time, result in the emergence of catalytic sequences essential to biological life.&#8221; They have dubbed their findings &#8220;the Foldamer Hypothesis,&#8221; referring to the ability of particular polymer chains to fold and bind together to grow longer chains containing more informational molecules.</p>
<p>This model provides scientists with a testable hypothesis which will allow experimentation to confirm or refute their computational findings. This is an important step in discovering more information regarding the origins of live on Earth. &#8220;&#8230;we hope to have revealed a key step to understanding just how life started to form on earth billions of years ago,&#8221; explains Professor Dill. Understanding how we got here will be invaluable in allowing us to accurately discern where we&#8217;re going. Future findings could also clue us in to previously unknown factors that could help us find life elsewhere in the galaxy.</p>


We are inching ever-closer to answers about life on Earth.

Researchers from Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a computer model that could help shed more light on the origins of life on Earth.

A New Model Could Clue Us Into How Life Began on Earth

We have a long way to go, but this is a big step in the right direction.

<h2>Snowballs and Algae</h2>
<p>This week, <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/anu-led-study-solves-mystery-of-how-first-animals-appeared-on-earth" target="_blank">in a press release</a>, the <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/" target="_blank">Australian National University</a> asserted that a team of their scientists had figured out how animal life came into existence on our planet. The release states, &#8220;Research led by The Australian National University (ANU) has solved the mystery of how the first animals appeared on Earth, a pivotal moment for the planet without which humans would not exist.&#8221;</p>
<p>The discovery started with ancient sedimentary rock samples from central Australia. The team, led by ANU Research School of Earth Sciences associate professor Jochen Brocks, crushed the rock samples into powder and then &#8220;extracted molecules of ancient organisms from them,&#8221; Brocks explained in the press release. &#8220;These molecules tell us that it really became interesting 650 million years ago. It was a revolution of ecosystems, it was the rise of algae.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth" target="_blank">Scientists generally agree</a> that complex, animal life on Earth started some 600 million years ago. Brocks and his team claim that a significant event preceded this. &#8220;Before all of this happened, there was a dramatic event 50 million years earlier called Snowball Earth,&#8221; he said, referring to <a href="http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/2010/05/oceans-of-ice-the-snowball-earth-theory-of-global-glaciation/#.WZV9mXcjG2w" target="_blank">a hypothesis</a> that suggests a period when the planet&#8217;s surface was entirely frozen from pole to pole.</p>
<p>This event is key for the ANU team&#8217;s findings, as it was what made the growth and spread of algae possible. &#8220;The Earth was frozen over for 50 million years. Huge glaciers ground entire mountain ranges to powder that released nutrients, and when the snow melted during an extreme global heating event rivers washed torrents of nutrients into the ocean,&#8221; Brocks explained.</p>
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<h2>Evolving Insights</h2>
<p>At the end of this frozen period, when global temperatures settled into more hospitable levels, the nutrients that flooded into the oceans sparked the transition from microbial life into a more complex life, Brocks said. &#8220;These large and nutritious organisms at the base of the food web provided the burst of energy required for the evolution of complex ecosystems, where increasingly large and complex animals, including humans, could thrive on Earth,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>This study is, indeed, promising and could potentially be groundbreaking. The origin of complex life on Earth remains one of the most puzzling events in science, as the evolutionary jump between single-celled microbes and multi-cellular, nucleus-bearing, mitochondria-powered organisms is simply immense.</p>
<p>Additionally, our understanding of the moment this occurred keeps on evolving. While it&#8217;s understood that conditions on Earth became ideal at a certain point to make life possible, being able to pinpoint just what these conditions were — and exactly when they occurred — could better help explain complex life&#8217;s rise.</p>
<p>Studies like this ANU research help in achieving this. Recently, a couple of studies have been published that also attempted to shed light into the origin of life on Earth. One suggested that life didn&#8217;t just begin in the oceans, <a href="https://futurism.com/new-fossil-evidences-suggests-life-may-have-originated-on-land-and-not-in-the-oceans/" target="_blank">but also on land</a>. Another claimed that the so-called Asgard microbes are <a href="https://futurism.com/asgard-microbes-might-be-key-to-origin-of-complex-life/" target="_blank">the bacterial ancestors of human life</a>.</p>
<p>Studying the origins of life on this planet could also help us to figure out how life develops in the cosmos. Right now, <a href="https://futurism.com/a-new-theory-suggests-we-may-be-the-only-technologically-advanced-civilization-still-around/">the search for extraterrestrial life</a> is a concern that keeps a number of scientists and institutions occupied. Understanding life on Earth might just help us understand life beyond it.</p>


How life jumped from single-celled microbes to animals, plants, fungi and more remains one of our planet's biggest mysteries.

A team of researchers from the Australian National University think that the nutrients needed for complex life came from when our frozen planet melted.

Scientists Claim They Have “Solved the Mystery of How the First Animals Appeared on Earth”

Algae holds the answer. 

<h2>&#8220;Rocks Rolling Downhill&#8221;</h2>
<p>How did life first originate from nothing? This has been the focus of biologists, specifically astrobiologists, and popular theories have included everything from meteorites to seemingly random chemicals to luck. In 1859, Charles Darwin posited that “All organic beings that have lived on Earth could be descended from some primordial form,” in The Origin of Species. <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091027101415.htm" target="_blank">His basic idea</a> was that chemical components and energy sources somehow spontaneously generated life in the primordial soup.</p>
<p>However, in 2013, MIT biophysicist Jeremy England proposed <a href="https://futurism.com/abiogenesis-theory-origins-life/" target="_blank">a new theory</a> that substituted thermodynamics in place of luck. He derived a mathematical formula to explain how atoms, driven by external energy (such as that found in primordial soup) and heat (like you&#8217;d find in an atmosphere), will gradually restructure themselves to dissipate more and more energy. In other words, under the right conditions, matter naturally acquires the basic physical quality — the tendency to capture energy from the environment and dissipate it as heat — associated with life, based on the law of increasing entropy or the second law of thermodynamics, also called the “arrow of time.”</p>
<figure class="wp-caption">
<p><figure id="attachment_93606" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="hoverZoomLink wp-image-93606 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/08/molecules.jpg" alt="Image Credit: Dieter_G/Pixabay" width="1920" height="1906" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: Dieter_G/Pixabay</figcaption></figure></figure>
<figure class="wp-caption">If this theory is right, <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122/" target="_blank">England commented in 2013</a>, luck has nothing to do with it, and life should evolve following those laws and “should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill.”</p>
<h2>The Arrow Of Time</h2>
<p>England has since been <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-support-for-a-physics-theory-of-life-20170726/" target="_blank">testing his formula</a> and his idea more generally using computer simulations. He published <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/114/29/7565.abstract" target="_blank">two studies</a> in July, and <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.038001" target="_blank">both experiments</a> appear to support his basic theory about adaptation driven by dissipation. However, what these results ultimately mean for the origins of life remain unclear.</p>
<p>In the simulation, a soup of 25 chemicals reacted together in multiple ways as environmental sources of energy “force” certain chemical reactions, just like ATP provides the chemical fuel for cellular metabolism. In some cases, the system reaches an equilibrium state, the most familiar outcome produced by the second law of thermodynamics. However, in other cases, the chemical reaction network evolves as reactions harvest as much energy from the environment as possible, ending at fixed points far away from equilibrium.</p>
<p>These “rare states of extremal thermodynamic forcing” are similar to the extreme forcing that living creatures engage in as we burn up chemical energy. England believes that atoms acquire the very specific form and function designed for optimal chemical energy consumption and become a bacterium because thermodynamics dictates this natural outcome in far-from-equilibrium systems. Many biophysicists agree with England, but since there is still disagreement about what the essence of life is, it&#8217;s difficult to nail down how explanatory this theory is in terms of life&#8217;s origins.</p>
<p>So, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/controversial-new-theory-suggests-life-wasnt-a-fluke-of-biologyit-was-physics/" target="_blank">what&#8217;s next</a>? Perhaps physically simulating primordial soup outside of a computer environment is the next step, but this does involve some guesswork. And, while England sees his theory as underlying Darwinian evolution, some disagree that this dissipation-driven adaptation theory could distinguish between things that are simply structured in a certain way and things that are alive. For example, the ability to perceive, process, and pass on information in the form of reproduction may not be fully explained by England&#8217;s theory. In any case, this work provides fascinating insights into one possible explanation of how our planet made something out of nothing.</figure>


Could this new theory better explain the origins of life?

Biophysicist Jeremy England has published support for his theory of adaptation driven by dissipation, and its relationship to abiogenesis.

New Theory for Life Suggests It Was Not an Accident of Biology. It Was Physics.

It doesn't seem like it was just luck.

<h2>A Diverse Origin</h2>
<p>When Moby sang about humans being made of stars, he wasn&#8217;t just being poetic. It certainly wasn&#8217;t his idea though, as the theory has <a href="https://futurism.com/made-starstuff/" target="_blank">been around for decades now</a>. Supposedly, the same kind of atoms found in the human body are also found in cosmic objects. A new study published in the <i><a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/search-results?page=1&amp;q=Daniel%20Angl%C3%A9s-Alc%C3%A1zar&amp;fl_SiteID=5326&amp;allJournals=1&amp;SearchSourceType=1" target="_blank">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</a></i> confirms this, and in fact pushes the assumption a little bit further. Not only are we made of stars, but almost half the atoms that make up the human body may have formed outside the Milky Way.</p>
<p>Astronomers, led by Daniel Anglés-Alcázar from <a href="Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois" target="_blank">Northwestern University</a> in Evanston, Illinois, said that the human body&#8217;s intergalactic atoms came from beyond the Milky Way, and were brought to the Solar System via intergalactic winds caused by exploding stars. “The surprising thing is that galactic winds contribute significantly more material than we thought,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/27/we-are-all-made-of-stars-half-our-bodies-atoms-formed-beyond-the-milky-way" target="_blank">Anglés-Alcázar told </a><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/27/we-are-all-made-of-stars-half-our-bodies-atoms-formed-beyond-the-milky-way" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></i>.</p>
<p>Using computer simulations, the astronomers found that as much as half of the material in galaxies similar to the Milky Way could have come from smaller galactic neighbors. When supernovas explode, these tend to hurl trillions of tons of atoms with a force so strong that these escape their galaxy&#8217;s gravity and end up in a larger galactic neighbor.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XeSm-hATBlI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Forming Life</h2>
<p>The astronomers also found that the hydrogen and helium from these far-flung atoms end up forming new stars once they reach their new galactic home. The heavier elements — which were created by the exploding <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="59190" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">supernovas</span> — give rise to planets, comets, asteroids — and potentially life. “In terms of research in galaxy evolution, we’re very excited about these results. It’s a new mode of galaxy growth we’ve not considered before.” Anglés-Alcázar added.</p>
<p>Indeed, this creates a fresh perspective regarding our understanding of <a href="https://futurism.com/asgard-microbes-might-be-key-to-origin-of-complex-life/" target="_blank">how life on Earth formed</a>. We know that certain conditions made it <a href="https://futurism.com/new-fossil-evidences-suggests-life-may-have-originated-on-land-and-not-in-the-oceans/" target="_blank">possible for life to begin on the planet</a>, and that life evolved from single-celled organisms into more complex multicellular ones. However, it looks like the primordial soup wasn&#8217;t exactly a local dish.</p>
<p>“Science is very useful for finding our place in the universe,” said Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, an astronomer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “In some sense we are extragalactic visitors or immigrants in what we think of as our galaxy.” In that sense, another pop singer was right. We might all be lost stars.</p>


This research introduces a fresh perspective on how life on Earth formed.

Off World

Evidence from computer simulations has lead researchers to believe that half the atoms found in the Milky Way (and our bodies) have extragalactic origins.

New Study Shows Half the Atoms in Our Bodies Came From Beyond the Milky Way

"It’s a new mode of galaxy growth we’ve not considered before.”

<h2>Life on Land</h2>
<p>Scientists currently hold two different assumptions regarding <a href="https://futurism.com/asgard-microbes-might-be-key-to-origin-of-complex-life/" target="_blank">the origins of life on Earth</a>. The first and more popular one assumes life began under Earth&#8217;s ancient oceans, in deep sea hydrothermal vents. The second suggests that life originated on land. Now, scientists from the <a href="https://unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank">University of New South Wales (UNSW)</a> have uncovered fossil evidence that supports the second assumption and pushes back — way back —the earliest known existence of life in hot springs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our exciting findings don&#8217;t just extend back the record of life living in hot springs by 3 billion years, they indicate that life was inhabiting the land much earlier than previously thought, by up to about 580 million years,&#8221; Tara Djokic, first author of the study, which is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15263" target="_blank">published in </a><i><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15263" target="_blank">Nature Communications</a>, </i><a href="http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/oldest-evidence-life-land-found-348-billion-year-old-australian-rocks" target="_blank">explained in a UNSW press release</a>.</p>
<p><img class="wp-image-82277 size-large aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/05/evidence-terrestrial-life-1.png" width="798" height="380" /></p>
<p>The UNSW scientists made their discovery of fossil evidence of early life while studying hot spring deposits from the ancient Dresser Formation within Western Australia&#8217;s Pilbara Craton. These well-preserved deposits were approximately 3.5 billion years old and contained evidence of <a href="https://www.mindat.org/min-9382.html" target="_blank">geyserite</a>, a mineral deposit found only in a terrestrial hot spring environment.</p>
<h2>Life on Alien Lands</h2>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/living-off-the-land-a-practical-guide-to-settling-mars-red-planet/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/07/Living-Off-the-Land_home_v1.jpg" alt="Living Off The Land: A Guide To Settling Mars [Infographic]" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/living-off-the-land-a-practical-guide-to-settling-mars-red-planet/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>Though they are noteworthy for what they tell us about early life on Earth, the findings of the UNSW study have implications that extend far beyond our planet. &#8220;Our research also has major implications for the search for life on Mars, because the Red Planet has ancient hot spring deposits of a similar age to the Dresser Formation in the Pilbara,&#8221; Djokic explained.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://futurism.com/we-just-found-new-evidence-of-water-on-mars/" target="_blank">the presence of water on Mars</a> is already backed by quite a bit of evidence. Some of this water is <a href="https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/sci/fifthconf99/6078.pdf" target="_blank">in the form of ponds</a> similar to ancient hot springs on Earth, most notably in a region of the Red Planet known as <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_291.html" target="_blank">Columbia Hills</a>. &#8220;The Pilbara deposits are the same age as much of the crust of Mars, which makes hot spring deposits on the Red Planet an exciting target for our quest to find fossilized life there,&#8221; <a href="https://www.aca.unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank">Australian Center for Astrobiology</a> director Van Kranendonk said about the study.</p>
<p>Of course, this all assumes that whatever life could exist on Mars would be similar to that of Earth&#8217;s, <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-uncover-new-evidence-for-life-on-ancient-mars/" target="_blank">at least on a microbial level</a>. &#8220;If life can be preserved in hot springs so far back in Earth&#8217;s history, then there is a good chance it could be preserved in Martian hot springs, too,&#8221; Djokic concluded.</p>


We may have been half a billion years off in our predictions.

/Origin Of Life

Hard Science

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Scientists Have Uncovered New Evidence of the Origins of Life on Earth

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Life May Have Emerged on Earth Earlier Than We Previously Thought

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Scientists Claim They Have “Solved the Mystery of How the First Animals Appeared on Earth”

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New Theory for Life Suggests It Was Not an Accident of Biology. It Was Physics.

Off World

New Study Shows Half the Atoms in Our Bodies Came From Beyond the Milky Way

Hard Science

New Fossil Evidence Suggests Life May Have Originated on Land and Not in the Oceans

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