How life arose on earth.

To understand the origins of life, it is necessary to disassemble it piece by piece, to reach its most basic components. In this work, many scientists try to explain how amino acids, which are the blocks of primary materials from which cells are formed, were formed. proteins and all cellular life of which we are composed. To explain that origin at the end of the 19th century, a proposal arose that is still valid today, at that time scientists speculated that life could have started in a small warm pond, in a mud or chemical soup also called primordial soup. .

That soup would be endowed with energy by lightning from storms, heat from the atmosphere and other sources of energy such as hot springs, all of which ended up being mixed and activated in concentrated quantities to form the first organic molecules. That was the theory but, to verify it in 1953, a historical experiment was carried out. Stanley Miller and Harold Clayton from the University of Chicago tried to reproduce those original conditions inside a container in their laboratory, for which they filled a closed chamber with methane gas, ammonia, water. and molecular hydrogen gases and elements that at the time were thought to be those that formed the primitive atmosphere of the earth. To this mixture, to this primordial soup, the scientists applied the repeated ignition of an electric spark in order to simulate the discharge of a lightning storm. A week later, the researchers analyzed the contents of the container and discovered that 20 different amino acids had been formed. , that was one of the great moments of 20th century science, it demonstrated that a large number of complex organic molecules could be synthesized in the early Earth's atmosphere.

To this mixture, to this primordial soup, the scientists applied the repeated ignition of an electric spark in order to simulate the discharge of a lightning storm. A week later, the researchers analyzed the contents of the container and discovered that 20 different amino acids had been formed. , that was one of the great moments of 20th century science, it demonstrated that a large number of complex organic molecules could be synthesized in the early Earth's atmosphere. The experiment had not managed to create life, but the basic elements did, after that advance the scientists of the 50s thought that they were very close to reaching the crucial moment, finding the recipe to reproduce the spark of life but the thing was not so easy in the last 70 years the path to the origin of life has become more complicated, it is true that research is advancing but behind each door another door opens and sometimes it is discovered that the path followed was not the correct.

For example, after several recent findings, scientists now know that the atmosphere of the early earth was not what was thought in the 1950s, it is now believed that ammonia and methane were much less abundant and instead the air of the early earth it was full of carbon dioxide and molecular nitrogen, and that's a big problem because those gases require more energy to break down and although they can also produce amino acids and other organic molecules, they do so in much lesser amounts. So the scientists found themselves on a path that seemed to have no way out. They needed a new explanation and, above all, they needed a new source of energy that would be the creator of the essential elements for life. Looking for alternative sources of energy, some scientists pointed to the shock waves of asteroids that impacted with the earth, which at that time were much more numerous than today since the solar system was still in formation and there was much debris from the cloud. original as well as remains of small planets and giant asteroids that had been destroyed by colossal collisions with each other. Other scientists cited that perhaps the origin could be in solar ultraviolet radiation, with much more energy and would show that our sun would have the leading role in forming the molecules that would later give life.

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