Module 1

The origin of Life

How did life begin?
- scientific hypothesis about how life reproduces itself
- states that an organisms would simply poof into existence
- idea started from Aristotle
* life came from nonliving material if the material contained
pneuma (“vital heat”)
*sudden appearance of fish
in a new puddle of water;
frogs develop from falling
drops of rain; and flies
arose from decaying meat
• first to refute the idea that maggots (the larvae of flies)
spontaneously generate on meat left out in the open air
• predicted that preventing flies from having direct
contact with the meat
would also prevent
the appearance of
maggots
• did not agree with
Needham’s conclusions
• Heated but sealed flasks
remained clear, without any
signs of spontaneous
growth, unless the flasks
were subsequently opened
to the air
• microbes were introduced
into these flasks from the
air
• he filtered air through a
gun-cotton filter and, upon
microscopic examination of
the cotton, found it full of
microorganisms, suggesting
that the exposure of a broth
to air was not introducing a
“life force” to the broth but
rather airborne
microorganisms
 “Simpler “The ocean is a
primordial soup
creatures can that enables
“Life only comes give rise to a gradual progression
from life” more complex from simple
creature” chemistry to living
cell.”

Louis Pasteur Charles Darwin Alexander Oparin

 • Widely-accepted theory
on the origin of life

ABIOGENESIS • The modern hypothesis

"Organic chemistry is key of abiogenesis holds
to the origin of life“ that the primitive life
on Earth originated
- Thomas Henry Huxley from lifeless matter,
and it took millions of
years to transpire.
EXPERIMENT In 1953, Stanley
Miller set up a closed system to
mimic conditions thought at that
time to have existed on the early
Earth. A flask of water simulated
the primeval sea. The water was
heated so that some vaporized
and moved into a second, higher
flask containing the
“atmosphere”—a mixture of
gases. Sparks were discharged in
the synthetic atmosphere to
mimic lightning.
RESULTS Miller identified a
variety of organic molecules
that are common in
organisms. These included
simple compounds, such as
formaldehyde (CH2O) and
hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and
more complex molecules,
such as amino acids and long
chains of carbon and
hydrogen known as
hydrocarbons.
CONCLUSION Organic
molecules, a first step in the
origin of life, may have been
synthesized abiotically on the
early Earth. Although later
evidence indicated that the early-
Earth atmosphere was different
from the “atmosphere” used by
Miller in this experiment, recent
experiments using the revised list
of chemicals also produced
organic molecules.
1665 Robert Hooke discovered cells
1673 Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek first discovered live cells
1831 Robert Brown provided the first account of the nucleus
1838 Matthias Schleiden studied plant cells
1839 Theodore Schwann concluded that animals are made up
of cells.
1855 Rudolph Virchow suggested that cells came from pre-
existing cells through cell division
•
•
•
General Biology 1 – Lesson 1

✓3-D image of the surface of

a specimen
✓surface of a cell from a
trachea (windpipe)
covered with cell
projections called cilia
✓electron micrographs are
black and white but are
often artificially colorized
General Biology 1 – Lesson 1

✓profiles a thin section of a

specimen
✓TEM shows a section through a
tracheal cell, revealing its internal
structure
✓cilia were cut along their lengths,
creating longitudinal sections,
while other cilia were cut straight
across, creating cross sections.
General Biology 1 – Lesson 1

✓ frozen rapidly at
temperatures less than
–160°C
✓beam of electrons is
passed through the
✓creates a 3-D image
 The following postulates or
assumptions comprise the cell
theory.

1. All living organisms are made up

THE CELL of one or more cells.
THEORY 2. Cells are the basic units of
structure, function and organization
in all living
organisms.
3. Cells come from pre-existing cells.
 The Modern Principles of the Cell Theory include the
following:

1. All living things are made up of one or more cells.

2. The cell is the fundamental, structural and functional unit
THE of all living organisms.
3. All cells come from pre-existing cells, by cell division.
MODERN 4. The activity of the organism is the total activity of the
independent cells of
CELL organism.
5. All energy flow of life occurs within the cell.
6. The cells contain hereditary information and is passed on
THEORY from one to another
during cell division.
7. The chemical composition of cell are basically the same in
organisms of similar
species.
- Cell fractionation
This structure of the plant cell
is non-living

A. Nucleus
B. Cell wall
C. Cytoplasm
D. Mitochondrion
This cell organelle does not
contain DNA

A. Nucleus
B. Mitochondria
C. Lysosomes
D. Chloroplast
Which scientist was the first to
explain that new cells arise
from pre-existing cells?

A. Antony Von Leeuwenhoek

B. Matthias Schleiden
C. Rudolph Virchow
D. Theodore Schwann
In a short bondpaper, draw and label the
parts and functions of the following:
a. Animal cell
b. Plant cell
c. Unicellular Fungi
d. Unicellular Algae