What energy source sparked the evolution of life?

[admin]

Leading theories suggest that the first energy used by life was either from the sun or from geothermal heat and chemistry at the bottom of the ocean.

What energy source sparked the evolution of life? : Read more

 

[RickK]

When talking about the "Origin of Life", PLEASE do not use the term "evolution"!
Evolution is NOT about how life began, it is about how life develops and changes, generation over generation, and from that EVOLVES!

How abiogenesis developed is still a complete unknown with many competing hypotheses and MUCH speculation. How life continues on into various forms "most wonderful" is well understood.

When people who do not understand evolution or the concept of abiogenesis read articles such as this, they conflate (as YOU have!) the two concepts. This very much clouds the understanding of both of them.

 

[Broadlands]

The origin of life on this planet required two things: (1) protection from the Sun's UV damaging radiation. (2) repeated wetting and drying, heating and cooling to make the initial peptide and polypeptide bonds leading to proteins and cells. What that means is starting this process underwater is not one of the possibilities and also that oxygen was required to maintain a minimum ozone screen.

 

[Furti]

The origin of life on this planet required two things: (1) protection from the Sun's UV damaging radiation. (2) repeated wetting and drying, heating and cooling to make the initial peptide and polypeptide bonds leading to proteins and cells. What that means is starting this process underwater is not one of the possibilities and also that oxygen was required to maintain a minimum ozone screen.

No, oxygen is not required (nor was it present for the next billion years after Earth's formation) for life's emergence; there is indeed a consensus on this. No one uses O2 in their prebiotic chemistry experiments.

On the topic of the 'water problem', there's now dozens of great papers showing polymerization under wet conditions without using wet-dry cycling. This is achieved by chemical activation of the monomers, which is exactly how cells polymerize monomers btw.

 

[Furti]

When talking about the "Origin of Life", PLEASE do not use the term "evolution"!
Evolution is NOT about how life began, it is about how life develops and changes, generation over generation, and from that EVOLVES!

How abiogenesis developed is still a complete unknown with many competing hypotheses and MUCH speculation. How life continues on into various forms "most wonderful" is well understood.

When people who do not understand evolution or the concept of abiogenesis read articles such as this, they conflate (as YOU have!) the two concepts. This very much clouds the understanding of both of them.

Darwinian evolution needs mainly two things: (1) natural selection acting upon variance and (2) a sufficiently good heredity mechanism so that information is carried over vertically through generations. There's plenty of competent Origins scientists who think evolution can happen in chemical systems which we wouldn't yet call alive. Chances are gene-based Darwinian evolution is only a subset of all possible evolutionary types. So this 'conflation' you talk about is very much an active discussion point amongst experts.

 

[Broadlands]

No, oxygen is not required (nor was it present for the next billion years after Earth's formation) for life's emergence; there is indeed a consensus on this. No one uses O2 in their prebiotic chemistry experiments.

On the topic of the 'water problem', there's now dozens of great papers showing polymerization under wet conditions without using wet-dry cycling. This is achieved by chemical activation of the monomers, which is exactly how cells polymerize monomers btw.

That is not correct. Without oxygen to provide ozone, no photosynthetic life in the early Archean would have been possible. Nor can the initial peptide and nucleotide bonds have formed underwater.

 

[updown]

Gravity...and it's impact on the movement of two objects with different densities in a fluid. Up and down...down and up....back and forth...and friction happens...heat and cooling...and the process is the same for any two objects with similar densities. My question is what keeps the objects or entities in close proximity or maintains a limited range of motion so that constant contact is maintain. A better understanding of variations in motion
relative to gravity or down may offer an explanation for most everything. Seems someone else thought the same thing.

 

[Stephan Gunther]

When talking about the "Origin of Life", PLEASE do not use the term "evolution"!
Evolution is NOT about how life began, it is about how life develops and changes, generation over generation, and from that EVOLVES!

How abiogenesis developed is still a complete unknown with many competing hypotheses and MUCH speculation. How life continues on into various forms "most wonderful" is well understood.

When people who do not understand evolution or the concept of abiogenesis read articles such as this, they conflate (as YOU have!) the two concepts. This very much clouds the understanding of both of them.

It may not be the best phrasing but it isn't incorrect. From the moment of abiogenesis, and possibly before, evolution was in action.

 

[Furti]

That is not correct. Without oxygen to provide ozone, no photosynthetic life in the early Archean would have been possible. Nor can the initial peptide and nucleotide bonds have formed underwater.

Wrong again. Evidence shows anoxygenic photosynthesis (photosynthesis that doesn't generate O2) preceded oxygenic photosynthesis. Here, read a bit: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-047514-1.50013-5. There's plenty of stromatolites (colonies of photosynthetic organisms doing non-oxygenic photosynthesis) found in the Archaean eon before we see evidence of oxygen accumulating in the atmosphere.

Peptide and nucleotide bonds have shown to form non-enzymatically under aqueous conditions. This is exactly what our cells do (chemical activation of the monomers), so of course it's possible LOL. Here, free education for you: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01732030.