Lecture 19: The Origin of Life on Earth

How did life arise from non-life? Frankly, we don't know, but current experimental work is aimed at trying to understand how it might work in biochemical terms. This lecture sets out the problem of "abiogenesis", and describes our current thinking about the likely origins of life on Earth. We will review the classic Miller-Urey experiment, and look at its insights and limitations, discuss meteoritic sources of amino acids, and the basic requirements needed for protolife. I will then describe in outline two scenarios that are active areas of origins research: the RNA World model and the Metabolism First model. Finally, I will very briefly mention Exogenesis and Panspermia, which don't really address the problem of abiogenesis so much as move it elsewhere. Recorded live on 2009 Oct 20 in Room 1005 Smith Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.