Life as We Don't Know It

摘要

Theories of the origin of life on Earth fall into two general categories. Pre-biotic broth theories postulate a protracted origin by the self-assembly of high-molecular weight structures, such as RNA, proteins, and vesicles, in a cold pre-biotic broth of preaccumulated modules. More recently, theories based on a hy-drothermal origin have gained ground. For example, the theory of a pressurized iron-sulfur world suggests a fast origin by an autotrophic metabolism of low-molecular weight constituents, in an environment of iron sulfide and hot magmatic exhalations. Cody et al.'s results on page 1337 of this issue provide key support for the latter theory and greatly strengthen the hope that it may one day be possible to understand and reconstruct the beginnings of life on Earth.