Scientists discover new 'origins of life' chemical reactions

Four billion years ago, the Earth looked very different than it does today, devoid of life and covered by a vast ocean. Over the course of millions of years, in that primordial soup, life emerged. Researchers have long theorized ...

New findings challenge assumptions about origins of life

Before there was life on Earth, there were molecules. A primordial soup. At some point a few specialized molecules began replicating. This self-replication, scientists agree, kick-started a biochemical process that would ...

Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life

The question of how life began on a molecular level has been a longstanding problem in science. However, recent mathematical research sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotten a foothold in the chemical ...

We've been wrong about the origins of life for 90 years

For nearly nine decades, science's favorite explanation for the origin of life has been the "primordial soup". This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth's surface, triggered ...