Earth, four billion years ago. Our young world is subjected to a constant bombardment of meteors raining down on the surface. Burning lava flows out of volcanoes and into lakes.
And right there, in the midst of the inferno, the miracle happens. In the shade of a volcano, where lava is hardening into basalt, four different kinds of molecule unite to form a chain that becomes ever longer. This growing molecule – the first RNA strand – is the seed of life itself.
For decades, scientists have struggled to understand how life could originate from non-life. Yet new lab experiments at Florida’s Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution show how it could have taken place. Scientists there mixed a cocktail of organic molecules to imitate the first steps towards the origin of life.
Other scientists have
