Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Simulation of Early Earth Hydrothermal Chimneys in a Thermal Gradient Environment
Published on: February 27, 2021
Energy sources, self-organization, and the origin of life
Laurent Boiteau1, Robert Pascal
1Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron, UMR 5247, Universités Montpellier 1 & Montpellier 2-CNRS, CC DSBC 1706-Université Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
Abstract:
The emergence and early developments of life are considered from the point of view that contingent events that inevitably marked evolution were accompanied by deterministic driving forces governing the selection between different alternatives. Accordingly, potential energy sources are considered for their propensity to induce self-organization within the scope of the chemical approach to the origin of life. Requirements in terms of quality of energy locate thermal or photochemical activation in the atmosphere as highly likely processes for the formation of activated low-molecular weight organic compounds prone to induce biomolecular self-organization through their ability to deliver quanta of energy matching the needs of early biochemical pathways or the reproduction of self-replicating entities. These lines of reasoning suggest the existence of a direct connection between the free energy content of intermediates of early pathways and the quanta of energy delivered by available sources of energy.
Related Concept Videos
Origin of Cellular Life
Conditions on Early Earth
Conditions on Early Earth
Origin of Photosynthesis
Eukaryotic Evolution
Contrary to the endosymbiont theory, the eukaryote-first hypothesis proposes that the simpler prokaryotic and...
The First Law of Thermodynamics

