Limitations
There is no way to completely test this hypothesis because life
takes millions of years to develop therefore it is impossible to run this experiment.
Evidence Supporting
- many proteins require a metal atom in their structure (hemoglobin has 4 iron atoms)
- although scientists hypothesize that carbon dioxide would be found in conditions such as the hydrothermal vents, in the presence of CO2, the chemical reactions needed to create life did not occur
- nickel, a metal like those found in the vents, can take simple molecules such as CO & produce more complex particles, like amino acids
- the Earth has not been in existence long enough for the chemical reactions to evolve as they are believed to have been
- in conditions that mimicked the deep-sea vents, iron sulfide could be used to catalyze pyruvates, like those made in glycolysis
What is it?
One hypothesis...
- a collection of smaller hypotheses that assume life on Earth developed from metabolism instead of information replication
- reactions attract lipid membrane, which forms a cell
- a series of ordered chemical reactions that evolved to create cells
- hydrogen sulfide rose into the ocean from the crust & gives its electron to iron sulfide, which becomes troilite, (a catalyst for numerous reactions)
Metabolism-First
Hypothesis
- chemical network first appeared in deep sea hydrothermal vents
presented by
Alysia Apple & Alicia Phan
- these reactions attract lipids which form a membrane creating a cell
proposed by Gunter Wachtershauser