Eli5: (This prob sounds stupid) How did life forms come to be on earth? Like, how did something become ‘living’?
In: Biology
That is actually still a topic for debate.
It is generally assumed that at some point simple chemistry of self replicating molecules turned into life. We think that the very first life was RNA based not DNA based as you and I are.
There is some debate exactly where that happened. Tidal pools were a popular location for a long time, but deep sea vents are also a serious possibility.
There is also the whole panspermia theory (don’t laugh that is what it is called). The idea that life didn’t get started here on earth at all, but rather was contaminated by asteroids that contained some primitive life that originated elsewhere.
The idea that life got started out there does nothing to help solve the problem of how life got started int he first place and merely moves the problem to another location, but it has huge implications for the chances of findign life elsewhere.
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