From Soup to Cells - The Origin of Life
Summary:
There is a special field in the study of evolution, and that's the study of the origin of life. Scientists in this field try to find out the what, when, where, and how life originated by looking at ancient fossils of early Earth. These fossils contain some ancient microbes, and date back about 3.5 billion years ago. The scientists also look for similarities in the DNA of many organisms, in order to trace them all back to a single ancestor, one they may have determined to live in the extreme temperatures of the oceans' hydrothermal vents. By using their current knowledge of the macromolecules of a living organism, the scientists piece together a possible theory of the origin of life.
Relevance:
In our class, we have discussed about macromolecules and the origin of life. This includes Miller's experiment on creating organic molecules, that are the basic structures of macromolecules, from nonorganic molecules. In this article, the scientists use their knowledge of these macromolecules to help determine a theory on the origin of life.
Article:
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/origsoflife_01
What exactly are microbes?
ReplyDeleteMicrobes is just a general term for all the microorganisms in the world, this includes viruses, bacteria, white blood cells, etc.
DeleteHow did scientists determine that a possible ancient ancestor lived in extreme temperatures in ocean's hydrothermal vents?
ReplyDeleteThe scientists gathered the DNA of many organisms, they traced the DNA as far back as they could, and they got an organism that inhabits the ocean's hydrothermal vents. So they're mainly making an assumption, it's not entirely certain.
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