How do scientists think life was formed?

[Anonymous]

I heard some say

"Mineral-laden water emerging from a hydrothermal vent on the Niua underwater volcano in the Lau Basin, southwest Pacific Ocean. The microorganisms that live near such plumes have led some scientists to suggest them as the birthplaces of Earth's first life forms"

Do they actually believe that?

[Quackthulu2]

Science isn’t about belief, it never has been. Science is just a method used to study the world as it exists thought empirical observations.

But the closer you look at life, inside a single cell, at the individual organelles, even at the molecules that make life able to function. The more you realize that life, is just chemistry, really fucking complicated chemistry.

How does a muscle contract? Long amino acid chains forming muscle fibers called sarcomeres change shape in response to the concentration of acetylcholine which comes from a nearby neuron.

Now does a neuron fire? A difference in the concentration of sodium and potassium ions across the cellular membrane causing an electrical signal along the length of the neuron.

What causes the sodium and potassium concentrations to change? A molecular protein that changes shape in the presence (or absence) of ATP

What is ATP? Adenosine Triphosphate, a molecule that loses a phosphate group and become the more stable (but less energetic) Adenosine Bisphosphate (ABP) where the energy is transferred to whatever it is bound to.

What is a phosphate group? Four atoms of oxygen bound to a single phosphorus atom

How does ABP turn back into ATP? The mother fucking krebs cycle which takes place in the mitochondria. The aerobic (in the presents of oxygen) chemical process breaks down carbohydrate (literally hydrated carbon) molecules into you guessed it, carbon dioxide and water. The energy of each step in the cycle is used to bind ADP to a phosphate molecule to create a new ATP.

That is why mitochondria are “the powerhouse of the cell” they literally use the air we breathe and the food we eat to produce ATP which powers billions of various functions throughout the body.

[richardcory]

I don't think its known yet, but it is an area of active research. There are a number of theories, but all we really know is that it appeared pretty soon after the earth was cool enough that life was possible.

Looking for signs of life on other planets (Mars, Europa, etc ) might help understand how it started here

[slatyb]

It's all speculation. It's an interesting question but doesn't have a lot of practical value as we're not trying to start life on some other planet.

[Xawyx-2]

By evolution of course, from the ancient microorganisms.

[Twalli]

What life forms are we discussing, like single-celled organisms?

[FunkyMonkee]

Have you ever heard of the big bang?