Ask A Scientist© Biology Archive

Author:      beatnik
Text:        I am twelve years old and want to know how life began on earth.

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      profbill
Text:        I am 43 years old and so would I!  Scientists believe that 
lightning striking the atmosphere of the earth long ago caused certain simple 
chemicals like ammonia to form into more complicated chemicals that could lead 
to living cells.  These chemicals then could hook together in chains to form 
molecules that direct life, such as RNA and DNA.  One theory also says that 
fats in the primitive ocean acted on by waves, formed large globules enclosing 
these life directing chemicals, and that these structures eventually formed 
primitive cells.  Then inside the cells, conditions could evolve to allow the 
chemistry of life to work better and better, and so on.