Where Did Life Begin? Testing Ideas in Prebiotic Analogue Conditions

2021/02/10 by David W. Deamer · 31 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Origins and Evolution of Life #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Prebiotic #Abiogenesis #Astrobiology #Natural (archaeology) #Computer science #Earth science #Data science #Biology #Geology #Food science #Paleontology

paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/life11020134

published in Life 11(2), 134 (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

openalex publication_date 2021/02/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Publications related to the origin of life are mostly products of laboratory research and have the tacit assumption that the same reactions would have been possible on the early Earth some 4 billion years ago. Can this assumption be tested? We cannot go back in time, but we are able to venture out of the laboratory and perform experiments in natural conditions that are presumably analogous to the prebiotic environment. This brief review describes initial attempts to undertake such studies and some of the lessons we have learned.

Citations

• Earliest signs of life on land preserved in ca. 3.5 Ga hot spring deposits
• Amphiphilic Compounds Assemble into Membranous Vesicles in Hydrothermal Hot Spring Water but Not in Seawater
• Promotion of protocell self-assembly from mixed amphiphiles at the origin of life
• The Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of Life
• Elements for the Origin of Life on Land: A Deep-Time Perspective from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia

Cited by

• Abiogenesis [wikipedia]
• History of life [wikipedia]