THEORIES OF

ORIGIN OF LIFE
 Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to;

» Demonstrate understanding of the historical development of the concept of life

» Appreciate and value life by taking good care of all beings, plants, humans and
animals.
» Describe the different theories about origin of life
 What kind of place was primordial
Earth?
The atmosphere held The young sun shone
no free oxygen. with only 70%
of its present power.

There were few sounds beyond the wind,

the hiss of lava hitting water,
the boom of meteorites.

No plants, no animals, no bacteria, no viruses.

Four billion years ago…
3
 INTRODUCTION
Several attempts have been made from time to time to explain
the origin of life on earth.
As a result, there are several theories which offer their own
explanation on the possible mechanism of origin of life.
Following are some of them:

• Theory of Special Creation

• Theory of Spontaneous Generation
• Theory of Biogenesis
•Theory of Panspermia
• Deep sea hydrothermal vent theory
THEORY OF SPECIAL
CREATION
• All the different forms of life -
created by God.
• HINDU CONCEPT :- Lord Brahma-
created the living world in one stroke.

• CHRISTIAN & ISLAM BELIEF :-

God created this universe, plants,
animals and human beings in about
six days.
• 3 main postulates :
– All different kinds of animals &
plants were created at once.
– All organisms were created in the
same form in which they exist
today.
– Their bodies & organs have been
designed to fully meet the needs of
the environment.
• It has no scientific basis.
THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS
GENERATION
• Living things originated spontaneously from inanimate objects.
• It is also called abiogenesis or biopoesis.
• Supporters :- Aristotle
» Epicurus
» Von Helmont
• They believed
» Insects arise from dew
» Fish & frog from mud
» Fly maggots from meat .
 John Needham 1731-1781
- an English naturalist who
supported spontaneous
generation theory
The experiments consisted of briefly
boiling a broth mixture and then cooling
the mixture in an open container to room
temperature. Later, the flasks would be
sealed, and microbes would grow a few
days later. Those experiments seemed to
show that there was a life force that
produced spontaneous generation .

Today, it is known that the boiling time

was insufficient to kill any endosporses of
microbes and the cooling of flasks left
open to the air could cause microbial
contamination. It could also be
ascertained that Needham did not use
proper sterile technique.
Opposers of spontaneous generation theory

Francesco Redi Redi’s experiment

the theory
An Italian of spontaneous generation by
physician,
demonstrating that
biologist and poet. He is maggots come from eggs of
referred to as the
flies
founder of experimental
biology and the father of
modern parasitology.
He was the to challenge
the theory of
spontaneous generation
by demonstrating that
maggots come from the
eggs of flies
Lazzaro Spallanzani
1792- 1799
Lazzaro Spallanzani was an
Italian Catholic priest, biologist
and physiologist who made
important contributions to the
experimental study of bodily
functions, animal
reproduction, and animal
echolocation.
He performs same
experiment with Needham
and found that if the broth
was heat after the flash sealed
rather than before the
organism did not generate. He
the concluded that Needhams
experiment has been
contaminated.
 Theory of BIOGENESIS
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow
1858
A German physician, anthropologist,
pathologist, prehistorian, biologist,
writer, editor, and politician. He is
known as "the father of modern
pathology" and as the founder of
social medicine, and to his colleagues,
the "Pope of medicine"

He challenge the notion with his

theory of “biogenesis“ claiming all cells
came from pre-existing cells .
Although correct but his concept
lacked experimentation to prove it.
 Life Comes From Life
• Louis Pasteur’s carefully
controlled experiment
demonstrated that
bacteria arise only
from existing bacteria.
THEORY OF PANSPERMIA
 Hermann E. Richter

Hermann E. Richter (1865) and supported

by Svante Arrhenius.

Life had come to earth from other

planets of the universe, in the form of
resistant spores.
Svante Arrhenius (1903).
Svante Arrhenius posited that microscopic spores
are transferred through interplanetary space by
means of radiation pressure from the sun, in
1903. In the modern formulation, there are three
stages envisioned in this hypothesis:
• escape (from a planet),
• transit (through interplanetary space),
• and landing (on a recipient planet).
Each stage has since been investigated, lending
some credence to the hypothesis
British astronomers Fred
Hoyle and Chandra
Wickramasinghe
proposed:
interstellar dust and
comets contain
organic compounds.
comets, which are
largely made of
water-ice, carry
bacterial life across
galaxies and protect
it from radiation
damage along the
way.
Later proven to be
correct.
Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an
astrobiologist with NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center
published a paper on March 4,
2011, claiming to have
found fossil evidence for
cyanobacteria in an extremely
rare class of meteorites, called
CI1 carbonaceous chondrites .

Credit: Hoover/Journal of Cosmology

 SOME OTHER
THEORIES…….
• Theory of Eternity of life: Life only changes its form but is
never created. It has no origin and has always existed.
• Theory of catastrophism
– modification of the theory of Special Creation.
– States that there have been several creations of life by God,
each preceded by a catastrophe resulting from some kind of
geological disturbance.
– Since each catastrophe completely destroyed the existing
life, each new creation consisted of life form different from
that of previous ones.
– Main supporters : French scientists Georges Cuvier and
Orbigney
• The Atmosphere of Early Earth
– The Earth is believed to be about 4 billion years
old
– On ancient Earth, water vapor, carbon dioxide,
and methane were probably the most abundant
gases in the atmosphere. There were frequent
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and violent
storms
– Scientists believe that life began about 3.5 billion
years ago.
 Modeling Conditions on Early Earth
• The biggest question in science today is how did life arise?

– Stanley Miller – (1953) performed an

experiment where he mixed water, gases
(found on early earth), and sent
electricity through the mixture (to
represent lightening)
 Miller-Urey Experiment,
1953
By sparking the
atmosphere,
Miller hoped to Lightning
generate new
Primeval atmosphere:
chemicals that
CH4, H2, NH3
would rain into
the tiny ocean
and react to
form
something.
Early ocean

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 UREY – MILLER
EXPERIMENT
After a few days the
mixture began forming the
building blocks of proteins,
which are a part of the cell

However, they were never

able to form life. No human
has ever been able to form
living thing from a non-living
thing.
DEEP SEA HYDROTHERMAL
VENT THEORY
• Robert Ballard, along with a team of
thirty marine geologists,
geochemists, and geophysicists, had
found the worlds first known active
hydrothermal vents. There were no
biologists aboard—because no one
had expected the second shocking
discovery that came soon after: Life
was thriving in the abyss. Foot-long
clams and human-sized tube worms
with tulip-looking heads made the
already extraterrestrial landscape
 CONCLUSION
• All the evidence gathered thus far has revealed a great deal
about the origin of life, but there is still much to learn.
• Numerous scenarios have been explored for many years, but
there is still a large gap between what is known and what is
unknown.
• Because of the enormous length of time and the tremendous
change that has occurred since then, much of the evidence
relevant to origins has been lost and we may never know
certain details.
• Nevertheless, many of the gaps in our knowledge (gaps that
seemed unbridgeable just 20 years ago) have been filled in
recent years, and continuing research and new technologies
hold the promise of more insights.
 REFERENCES
• Strickberger W Monroe (2000), Evolution, 3rd edition, Jones and Bartlett
Publishers.
• Arora P Mohan . (2000), Evolutionary Biology ,3rd edition, Himalaya
Publishing House
• http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-clai
ms-evidence-alien-life meteorite/#ixzz1cvC7Bge8
• http://www.smashinglists.com/top-10-theories-on-beginning-of-life-on-eart
h/
• http://mannaismayaadventure.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/
• http://www.tutorvista.com/content/biology/biology-iii/origin-life/origin-life
-theories.php
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/03/962923/-Revolutionary-Science
:-Hydrothermal-Vents-and-the-Origins-of-Life
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_flx26bU0Q&feature=related
THANK U