The Chemical Origins of Life

How did life get started on Earth? And how are we using what we know to look for it throughout the galaxy?

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https://youtu.be/3TE1eedWO9w

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Credits:
Executive Producers:
George Zaidan
Hilary Hudson

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey

Writer/Host:
Sam Jones, PhD

Scientific consultants:
Michelle Boucher, PhD
Jason Dworkin, PhD
Lelia Duman, PhD
Nicholas Hud, PhD

Sources:
Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4

Habitable zones of different stars
https://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/habitable-zones-of-different-stars

The Habitable Zone
https://www.planetary.org/articles/what-is-the-habitable-zone#:~:text=Earth%20is%20the%20only%20planet,Sun%20to%20harbor%20liquid%20water.&text=Venus%20may%20have%20once%20had,the%20liquid%20water%20to%20evaporate.

Protein Synthesis and the Genetic Code
https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Eastern_Mennonite_University/EMU%3A_Chemistry_for_the_Life_Sciences_(Cessna)/19%3A_Nucleic_Acids/19.4%3A_Protein_Synthesis_and_the_Genetic_Code#:~:text=The%20genetic%20code%20can%20therefore,seen%2C%20is%20called%20a%20codon.

Early life on earth
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200115-what-the-earliest-life-on-earth-looked-like

Phosphate backbone
https://www.nature.com/scitable/definition/phosphate-backbone-273/

Phosphodiester Bond
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/phosphodiester-bond

Primordial soup
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34649466/primordial-soup-theory-origins-of-life-darwin/

Life on Venus? The picture gets cloudier
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/science/venus-life-phosphine.html

A Biologist Explains: What is Life?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2019/03/27/what-is-life/?sh=42ca4f0e1c77

Alternative Definitions of Life: Perspective Matters
https://www.sfu.ca/colloquium/PDC_Top/OoL/whatislife/Vikingmission.html#:~:text=The%20NASA%20Astrobiology%20Institute%20Definition,a%20simple%20test%20for%20life.

The Seven Pillars of Life
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/295/5563/2215

Darwinian Evolution
https://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html

Water on Mars
https://www.space.com/8642-flashback-water-mars-announced-10-years.html

Life on other planets?
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/5/is-there-life-on-other-planets/

Exoplanet atmospheres
https://www.physics.uu.se/research/astronomy-and-space-physics/research/planets/exoplanet-atmospheres/#:~:text=The%20most%20successful%20method%20for,is%20the%20transit%20spectroscopy%20method.&text=By%20measuring%20the%20fraction%20of,the%20atmosphere%20can%20be%20inferred.

Hubble versus James Webb Telescope
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparisonWebbVsHubble.html#:~:text=Webb%20will%20primarily%20look%20at,it%20has%20some%20infrared%20capability

Ingredients for life in space
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/eight-ingredients-life-in-space.html

Habitability on Mars from a Microbial Point of View
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00866015/document

Vocabulary of Definitions of Life Suggests a Definition
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/073911011010524992

Goddard Media Studios--transit spectroscopy
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11428

Phosphine gas found in Venus atmosphere may be a possible sign of life
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/phosphine-gas-found-venus-atmosphere-possible-sign-life#:~:text=But%20the%20signature%20of%20phosphine,absorbs%20light%20in%20that%20wavelength.&text=Phosphine%20takes%20a%20fair%20amount,is%20found%20in%20Venus'%20atmosphere.

NASA definition of life
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/research/life-detection/about/#:~:text=The%20NASA%20definition%20of%20life,life%20we%20know%20%E2%80%94Terran%20life.

Meteoritic Amino Acids: Diversity in Compositions Reflects Parent Body Histories
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00074

A search for amino acids and nucleobases in the Martian meteorite Roberts Massif 04262 using liquid chromatographymass spectrometry
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.12103

The 1953 Stanley L. Miller Experiment: Fifty Years of Prebiotic Organic Chemistry
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024807125069

Prebiotic Soup--Revisiting the Miller Experiment
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/300/5620/745.full

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