Mark I. Vuletic

Last updated 21 March 2008

Analysis

(i) There are areas on Earth that would have been protected from the worst of the bomabrdment, such as deep-sea vents, which some origin of life researchers already believe important to the origin of life for independent reasons (Fry 2000:119).

(ii) Some prebiotic synthesis may also have been accomplished in space, and then delivered to Earth by meteorites, shortening the time needed on Earth for the origin of life. Molecules important for abiogenesis that have been detected in space include hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, and cyanoacetylene (Olomucki 1993:46); amino acids and sugars also have been found on meteorites.

(iii) Even if life had only a small window of time in which to arise, this would not rule out abiogenesis; all it would mean is that origin of life researchers would have to confine their attention to mechanisms that work appropriately fast. There are in fact many avenues of research in origin of life studies that do involve rapid mechanisms. Stanley L. Miller, of the famous Miller-Urey experiments, even opines that abiogenesis may have taken place within "a period of perhaps 10,000 years" (Miller 1992:3).

References

Fry I. 2000. The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Miller SL. 1992. The prebiotic synthesis of organic compounds as a step toward the origin of life. pp. 1-28 in Schopf 1992.

Olomucki M. 1993. The Chemistry of Life. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Schopf JW (ed). 1992. Major Events in the History of Life. Boston: Jones and Bartlett.