They say that life started in our oceans…but how?

There was a time where the Earth was filled with various elements and no life. Deep in the oceans, in cold water far from the Sun’s reach, heated vents bounded hydrogen and carbon creating organic molecules, building blocks for life. 

The Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. For the first 3 billion years, these organic molecules remained organic molecules increasing in complexity. Molecules able to carry energy from these heat vents then formed. Eventually, molecules that were able to process energy using their own enzymes rather than that emitted from heated vents formed. The information needed to process the enzymes internally was stored in what we know now as genetic material (or DNA). One of the four rules of Cell Theory is that genetic material is passed from its parent cell…so how the first DNA formed without a parent cell was unknown for several years. 

UC Berkley | Department of Paleontology

The answer was in RNA, similar to DNA in the way that it can carry genetic information, but different as it could cause chemical reactions. RNA’s chemical reactions gave way for the complex enzymes that form DNA. Molecules able to duplicate themselves formed and sometimes changed based on surrounding molecules. Natural selection allowed resilient molecules to grow and more organic molecules like amino acids formed. These living compounds became stronger and more complex. These became bacteria and archaea.

At this point, all of these molecules still existed in heated vents but they eventually broke off. Those resilient survived and changed into the building blocks that gave way to all animals and plants today. Scientists have detected organic molecules outside of Earth–life already exists outside of our planet. 

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Cool!!!! - Val