New Theories on the Origin of Life

Image credit: 
Like us on Facebook

Today the New York Times brings us an interesting look at the origin of life. It tackles this central puzzle: "Which came first, the proteins of living cells or the genetic information that makes them? How could the metabolism of living things get started without an enclosing membrane to keep all the necessary chemicals together? But if life started inside a cell membrane, how did the necessary nutrients get in?"

The article is worth a read if you've ever wondered how life could arise from simple organic compounds; this article delves into bits of the technical details of how self-replicating, spontaneously dividing cells might have come about. Here's a snippet:



Read the rest for a nice bit of popular science reporting. Be sure to check out the video of Vesicle Nucleation (located around the fourth paragraph of the article).

More from mental_floss...

June 16, 2009 - 3:49pm
submit to reddit