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Asked by J-DIZZLE to Adrian, Gaia, Jim, Scott, Vicky on 5 Mar 2016.
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Adrian Buzatu answered on 5 Mar 2016:
The exact details are not yet clear. The scientific consensus is that life appeared naturally from the organic molecules existent on Earth since its beginning. From 20 amino-acids life on Earth is made of, 10 of them have been observed in cosmic space!
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Scott Lawrie answered on 7 Mar 2016:
No-one really knows! There are lots of interesting ways to arrange atoms and molecules into shapes useful for life, like proteins. But HOW some of the most important ones ‘happen to’ come together is still a mystery. The first ‘life-like’ things on Earth emerged 4billion years ago – soon after the Earth was made, but it took billions of years for those pre-life molecules to form things like DNA by chance. After that, it’s relatively quick to make bacteria, cells and animals. That first bit is the tricky one, though! The fact it started so soon after the Earth was made, though, gives us hope that it can start early on other planets, making life common throughout the universe.
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Jim Barrett answered on 7 Mar 2016:
This is a little out of my area of expertise, but I will say that if you’re interested in this stuff, there was a great episode of the Life Scientific (a podcast you can get off of iTunes or iplayer) where they interview Nick Lane, a guy who has worked a lot on this sort of stuff, he explains it really well.
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