
Featured news
19 Jan 2022
Likely energy source behind first life on Earth found ‘hiding in plain sight’
By Jessica Wimmer and William Martin A deep-sea hydrothermal vent. According to one theory, the first life on Earth arose at vents like these. Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration (CC BY-SA 2.0) Life on Earth arose roughly four billion years ago. How it arose, and from what energy source, is of interest to everyone, because we humans like to know where we come from. The team of Prof William Martin at the University Düsseldorf’s Institute of Molecular Evolution investigates early evolution. In a recent paper in Frontiers in Microbiology, they argue that the source of energy required at life’s origin has been hiding in plain sight: under the environmental conditions at deep sea hydrothermal vents, hypothesized to have been the sites where life on Earth originated, the central biosynthetic reactions of life do not require an external energy source. Rather, these core metabolic reactions release energy all by themselves as long as H2 and CO2 are in supply. The scientists thus link life’s biochemical beginnings to naturally occurring geochemical reactions. Here, corresponding author Ms Jessica Wimmer and Prof Martin explain their findings for a wider audience. There are many competing theories for how and where life arose. Although the […]