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Saturday, September 5, 2009 | Science : Evolution and Biology | print version Print | Comments |

Document Scientists propose new hypothesis on the origin of life

by Anuradha K. Herath - PHYSORG.com

Thanks to SPS for the link.
http://www.physorg.com/news171263002.html

The new hypothesis suggests that life on Earth originated at photosynthetically-active porous structures made of zinc sulfide similar to deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Credit: The Institute for Exploration, the University of Rhode Island (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), and the URI Institute for Archaeological Oceanography.

blankThe Miller-Urey experiment, conducted by chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953, is the classic experiment on the origin of life. It established that the early Earth atmosphere, as they pictured it, was capable of producing amino acids, the building blocks of life, from inorganic substances.

Now, more than 55 years later, two scientists are proposing a hypothesis that could add a new dimension to the debate on how life on Earth developed.

Armen Mulkidjanian of the University of Osnabrueck, Germany and Michael Galperin of the U.S. National Institutes of Health present their hypothesis and evidence in two papers published and open for review in the web site Biology Direct.
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http://www.physorg.com/news171263002.html

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1. Comment #412639 by adamd164 on September 5, 2009 at 11:01 am

 avatarVery interesting, thanks for this. Of current hypotheses, this seems to most resemble the Iron-Sulfur world idea. They're both "energy-first", and this seems to be the direction most evidence is pointing now that we know the early atmosphere to not have been conducive to direct formation of amino acids.

I also read an article recently adding what might be considered support for Crick and Orgel's Panspermia model; NASA found organic molecules in dust from an asteroid belt in the outer solar system.

We may never know for sure, but it's really fascinating to speculate (scientifically)!

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2. Comment #412660 by beelzebub on September 5, 2009 at 1:34 pm

 avatarWhat I find so interesting about all this is that, rather than struggling to find even one hypothesis for the beginnings of life, we have so many (See, for starters, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis#Current_models")!

The standard creationist argument that 'only a supernatural agent (God) could have created life', is clearly (and with more clarity as time goes by) wrong - there appear to be many possible paths that could lead to the emergence of life from 'non-life'.

Was there a kind of 'arms race' between differing potential life generators? Could the very basis of emergent life have been different, should the 'experiment' of abiogenesis be re-run again?
Fascinating stuff, for sure...

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3. Comment #412678 by happyfinesad on September 5, 2009 at 3:57 pm

 avatarComment #412660 by beelzebub

I do wonder if maybe there were various life generators rather than a single case of panspermia/primordial soup/etc... going on at the same time. Unlikely, to be sure, but fun to think on nonetheless.

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4. Comment #412743 by A on September 5, 2009 at 11:07 pm

this racist, stop this

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5. Comment #412807 by neander on September 6, 2009 at 1:05 pm

 avatarWhat the...?
Really interesting article. But not at all sure about previous post.

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6. Comment #412811 by Harvatos on September 6, 2009 at 1:27 pm

 avatarGoddidit? Why would he waste is time with that? Nature can perfectly take is role for that. God, maybe you exist (I seriously doubt so), but you are useless.

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7. Comment #412812 by Border Collie on September 6, 2009 at 1:30 pm

 avatarVery interesting article.

Comment 412473 ... Lay off the meth, dude, it makes one paranoid.

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8. Comment #412813 by bluebird on September 6, 2009 at 1:34 pm

 avatarO.T.
This is kinda fun for a Sunday morn! It could also be a mirror image '4':

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/09/pareidolia_for_the_godless.php

On nature walks I usually look for heart shaped rocks - I'm now gonna hunt for A's, too :D

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9. Comment #415267 by blackmath on September 15, 2009 at 12:12 pm

haven't read the papers yet but this sounds very similar to Michael J. Russell & Allan J. Hall's metabolism-first theory, which has a lot going for it

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