Some experts propose other explanations for life

Feb 9, 2010 08:53 GMT  ·  By
A portion of the Lost City, a huge spread of microbe colonies around mid-Atlantic hydrothermal vents
   A portion of the Lost City, a huge spread of microbe colonies around mid-Atlantic hydrothermal vents

One of the most enduring theories in science is the one stating that life emerged from a primordial soup, a mix of chemicals that promoted over eons the creation of organic molecules, amino-acids, and eventually proteins. But some researchers are arguing at this point that it's time for this theory to be discarded, in favor of new explanations. They argue that the old idea simply doesn't cut it anymore, and that a new explanation on how life appeared needs to be agreed upon, NPR reports.

One of the proponents of this type of shift is the leader of a team of experts at the University College London, biochemist Nick Lane. He says that the primordial soup idea, set forth by esteemed biologists such as J.B.S. Haldane, as far back as 1929, can no longer stay afloat in front of new scientific discoveries. “He proposed that the Earth's early atmosphere was composed of simple gases like methane and ammonia. And they would react together under the influence of ultraviolet rays or lightning to produce a thin 'soup' – which became thicker over time – of organic molecules,” Lane says.

But newer studies have revealed that the early atmosphere on our planet may have not been dominated by methane and ammonia to the extent other scientists thought. Rather than an interaction between gases, lightning and UV radiation, Lane and his team propose a new explanation for how the essential conditions for the development of life were set into place. They argue that some of the places that may have harbored the precursors of life as we know it may have included the deep-sea, alkaline hydrothermal vents, which even today are hosts to amazing microbial colonies, such as the Lost City.

As warmer liquids from this vent rise to the surface of the water, they produce small inorganic molecules, which are apparently able to produce energy in very much the same way all living cells do today, by harnessing the power of chemical gradients passing through a membrane. Lane likens this to a water dam, saying that, “It's the flow of water downhill through the power turbine which is generating electricity. Much the same thing happens in our cells, except instead of having water across a dam, what you actually have in cells is protons.”

“We think that the first cells could not have left these vents unless they'd found a way of tapping into these gradients that were naturally existing there, and then later on learning to generate their own,” the expert adds, saying that the only thing that remains at this point is for scientists to put this idea to the test inside the strictly controlled confines of labs.