Sulfur's Argumentative Essay: The Origin Of Life

The Origin of Life has long been debated about. In result to that there are many hypotheses that each claim that’s how life started. Some of them claim life came from space, others from clay and even hydrothermal vents. However, they’re only theories which is why many experiments and research going into proving them. Many great minds such as Alexander Oparin, Gunter Wachtershauser, Robert Vrijenhoek and Louis Pasteur are the brains behind the hypotheses which is what makes them even more interesting to test out. The hypotheses that I researched were the Primordial Soup Hypothesis, the Iron-Sulfur World Hypothesis, the Deep Sea Vent Hypothesis, the RNA World Hypothesis, the Community Clay Hypothesis and the Panspermia Hypothesis.

The Primordial Soup Hypothesis was proposed by biochemist Alexander Oparin in 1924. He claimed that life started in a warm body of water due to a combination of chemicals which led to form amino acids then to form proteins. The evidence that he used was that organic compounds may have endured a sequence of reactions that created more and more complex molecules. An experiment conducted to test this theory was the Miller-Urey Experiment done by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey.

The experiment duplicated the primeval conditions on Earth which led to produced chemicals necessary for life to start. Oparin argued that the primeval soup of organic molecules can be formed in an oxygen less atmosphere using sunlight combined to create “coacervate droplets” then grow with the fusion of other droplets and essentially, reproduce.

The Iron-Sulfur World Hypothesis was put forward by German chemist Gunter Wachtershauser in 1988.

He claimed that the biochemical cycle grew and created the first living cell, comparable to the chemosynthetic process as seen on the Galapagos. Evidence Wachtershauser presented was that energy transference cycles could appear using iron-sulfur clusters. The “Wächtershäuser systems” experiment had energy discharged from redox reactions of metal sulfides making the energy ready for organic molecule synthesis and for the formation of polymers and oligomers. Wachtershauser’s reasoning for this hypothesis was that Earth’s early bodies of water and immense volcanic activity were the perfect breeding ground for the beginning of life on

earth.

The Deep Sea Vent Hypothesis was first proposed by Robert Vrijenhoek in 1977 alleging that hydrothermal vents created the perfect environment for all of the elements necessary to have microbial life develop on Earth. The information presented was that they found biological communities surprisingly surviving near seafloor hydrothermal vents, far away from sunlight. They were developing on a chemical soup affluent in carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sulfur, gushing from the geysers. An experiment would be that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution checked for methanethiol although it was later shown that very little was actually present. Carbon dioxide, hydrogen and sulfur are all prevailing ingredients in methanethiol which is what is needed for the creation of microbial life.

The RNA World Hypothesis was first introduced in the 1960s by Francis Crick, Carl Woese, and Leslie Orgel. They claimed that RNA not only stored genetic information, but also stored catalyzed chemical reactions. Their evidence was that the ribosomes, huge molecular complex assembles that collects proteins, are actually ribozymes. An experiment used to test this hypothesis was the Miller-Urey experiment which was also used for the primordial soup hypothesis. Reasoning for this hypothesis was that it was found that RNA can deactivate and activate other molecules by joining them while bending into definitive structures.

The Community Clay Hypothesis was put forward by organic chemist Alex Grahm Carns-Smith in 1968. He allegated that life might have derived from clay. It’s been said that mineral crystals found in clay may have arranged organic molecules into organized patterns and after while started to take over and arrange themselves. With this hypothesis there hasn’t been technology advanced enough to perform an experiment. Carns-Smith’s reasoning for this hypothesis was that in the evidence above, it was shown that high concentrations of complex organic molecules, which are needed for life to begin can be accomplished.

The Panspermia Hypothesis was first thought of by French chemist Louis Pasteur in 1864. He believed that life was transferred here from somewhere in space. Much evidence is provided for this theory with some of it being that rocks are repeatedly blasted off of mars due to cosmic impacts. The meteorites that are often found here could have carried microbes which might’ve started life on Earth. The German Aerospace Centre performed experiments using a satellite. They took particles of clay, red sandstone and mixed them with bacterial spores. It was then exposed to outer space. In two weeks of constant exposure they found that almost all of the bacterial spores were able to survive the harsh conditions of outer space.Reasoning for this hypothesis is that certain types of bacteria are able to survive in space and that back before Earth had oxygen, Mars had oxygen.