origin of life
How biology started
The origin of life refers to how living organisms first arose from nonliving matter on Earth, a question spanning biology, chemistry, and philosophy.
Scientific theories focus on conditions in early Earth's oceans or hydrothermal vents where organic molecules might have self-organized into primitive cells.
The phrase also appears in religious and philosophical contexts: The origin of life remains one of science's great mysteries.
Also called abiogenesis.
- abiogenesisLife from inanimate matter
- cellBasic unit of life
- chiralityMirror-image non-superimposability
- amino acidsOrganic compounds forming proteins
- peptidesBonded amino acid sequences
UV radiation · prebiotic · replicators · tidal pools · organic compounds · nucleotides · volcanic activity · primordial soup · vents · amino · natural selection · hydrothermal · lightning · bacteria · acids · meteorite · molecules · soup
- creation debatecreationism, intelligent design, creation science, divine creation, special creation
- biologycells, DNA, cell, biology, gene
- originsbeginning, birth, creation, source, roots
- Faith and Sciencefaith and reason, intelligent design, creationism, creation science, evolution debate
- origins debatecreationism, evolution, intelligent design, creation science, Darwinism
- life originsabiogenesis, biogenesis, primordial soup, panspermia, spontaneous generation
origin of lifeextinction
Complete vanishing of a species
end of life · death · mass extinction · extinction event · heat death
origin of lifedivine creation
Something fashioned by deity
creationism · intelligent design · special creation · spontaneous generation · panspermia
life, original, origin, originality, originate, unoriginal, originally, origins, originated