Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Microbial Communities in Nature and Laboratory - Interview
Published on: May 28, 2007
Life as a cosmic imperative?
1de Duve Institute, 75, Avenue Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. deduve_private@icp.ucl.ac.be
Abstract:
The origin of life on Earth may be divided into two stages separated by the first appearance of replicable molecules, most probably of RNA. The first stage depended exclusively on chemistry. The second stage likewise involved chemistry, but with the additional participation of selection, a necessary concomitant of inevitable replication accidents. Consideration of these two processes suggests that the origin of life may have been close to obligatory under the physical-chemical conditions that prevailed at the site of its birth. Thus, an extrasolar planet in which those conditions were replicated appears as a probable site for the appearance of extra-terrestrial life.
Related Concept Videos
Requirements for Human Life
Oxygen
Atmospheric air is only about 20 percent oxygen, but that oxygen is a key component of the chemical reactions that keep the body alive, including the reactions that produce ATP. Brain cells are susceptible to a lack of oxygen because they require a...
Personal Identity
Conditions on Early Earth
Conditions on Early Earth
Momentum And Radiation Pressure
Self-Discrepancy Theory

