how was life created from nonliving things?

Question

and does this mean we can recreate this process to manipulate life into whatever we want?

In: 186

Answer 1

Abiogenesis is an extremely complex field that can’t possibly be explained to a five year old, but here’s the ELI15:

In the early Earth, there were several natural molecules that are very very simple. Things like CO2, H2O, NH3, CH4, and similar. If you have a collection of these molecules in gas form and you apply energy (such as through a lightning strike), they undergo chemical reactions that change them. Some of these byproducts are what we call biomolecules, molecules that are considered essential for life. Some examples include amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), lipids (fats), and nucleotides (the building blocks of genetic information). If you chain these molecules together in a certain way, you get the very first proto-cell, the very first life form.