Main Theories on the Origin of Life

Question 1

The Origin of Life

Answer 1

Nothing is directly known about the origin of life, the answer to this question are exceedingly complex and at best only tentative.

Question 2

Main Theories on the Origin of Life

Answer 2

1. Theory of Creation
2. Abiogenesis (Theory of Spontaneous Generation)
3. Biogenesis
4. Cosmozoic / Interplanetary Hypothesis
5. Natural or Marine (Primeval Soup)
6. Physico-chemical / Coacervate Droplet Theory
7. Evolution Theory

Question 3

Religion, Mythology, Philosophy

Answer 3

Theory of Creation

Question 4

The origin of life must be attributed to an agency outside nature called

Answer 4

creator

Question 5

(3) examples of people around the world that have origin myths

Answer 5

• Tasmanian aborigines
• Hebrew tribes of the Middle East
• Norse People of Scandinavia

Question 6

(Tasmanian aborigines)

A terrible battle between 2 rival gods:

Answer 6

Moinee and Dromerdeener up in the stars

Question 7

was defeated and fell out of the stars down to Tasmania. Before he died, he wanted to give a last blessing to his final resting stage, so he decided to create humans.

Answer 7

Moinee

Question 8

The people hated having such tails since they could not sit down.
So, they prayed to their god, and then the mighty _______ heard their cry. He pitied them, cut-off their inconvenient tails. Then, the people lived happily ever after.

Answer 8

Dromerdeener

Question 9

Portraits of Tasmanian aborigines from

Answer 9

François Péron’s Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes.

Question 10

Had only one god

Answer 10

Hebrew tribes of the Middle East

Question 11

(Hebrew tribes)
He made the first man out of

Answer 11

dust

Question 12

He placed Adam in a beautiful garden called ______, filled with trees.

Answer 12

Eden

Question 13

“forbidden tree”

Answer 13

Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Question 14

Also known as Viking seafarers, had a lot of gods, as the Greek
and Romans.

Answer 14

Norse People of Scandinavia

Question 15

chief God of Norse People of Scandinavia

Answer 15

Odin sometimes called as Wotan or Woden.

Question 16

from which we get out ‘Wednesday’.

Answer 16

Wotan or Woden

Question 17

‘Thursday’ comes from another Norse god, ______, the god of thunder, which he made with his mighty hammer.

Answer 17

Thor

Question 18

One day Odin was walking along the seashore with his brothers, who were also gods and they came upon

Answer 18

two tree trunks

Question 19

One of these tree trunks they turned into the first man, whom they called ‘____’ and the other they turned into the first woman, naming her ‘____’.

Answer 19

Ask;

Embla

Question 20

Having created the bodies of the first man and first woman, the brother gods then gave them the ____, followed by ______.

Answer 20

breath of life;

consciousness, faces and the gift of speech

Question 21

The book about the story of Norse People of Scandinavia

Answer 21

Magic of Reality, Richard Dawkins

Question 22

600 BC up to 2nd half of 19th century – believed that life could arise spontaneously from non-living substances.

Answer 22

Abiogenesis (Spontaneous Generation)

Question 23

Living organisms originated in sea lime under the influence of factors in the environment s.a. heat, air, sun.

Answer 23

Abiogenesis (Spontaneous Generation)

Question 24

Some vital force in the elements s.a. water, air, fire, & earth could transform lifeless matter into a living form. It persisted nearly 2000 years

Answer 24

Aristotle’s Hypothesis

Question 25

Middle of 17th century, he published an account of 21-day experiment which added to concept of abiogenesis.

Answer 25

Van Helmont’s Hypothesis

Question 26

21-day experiment

Answer 26

Wheat grains placed in a dirty shirt for 21 days will give rise to mice.

Question 27

21-day experiment active principle

Answer 27

was human sweat converting the wheat grains into mice

Question 28

He conducted an experiment to disprove abiogenesis

Answer 28

Francesco Redi - 1668 Italian physician

Question 29

Francesco Redi put some meat inside the jar and covered it. compared the unsealed flask, sealed flask, and flask covered with gauze

Answer 29

Redi experiment

Question 30

Every living thing on earth is the offspring of other living things.

Answer 30

Biogenesis

Question 31

was the first to be able to prove biogenesis and proposed that the organisms that are not visible to the naked eye are present in the air.

Answer 31

Louis Pasteur

Question 32

Working hypothesis: life arose from pre-existing life

Answer 32

Louis Pasteur

Question 33

Believed that microorganisms arose from pre-existing organisms

Answer 33

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Question 34

Broth in flask is boiled to kill preexisting microorganisms. As broth cools, condensing water collects, sealing the mouth of the flask. - NO GROWTH If neck is later broken off, outside air can carry micro organisms into broth. - GROWTH

Answer 34

Pasteur experiment

Question 35

Proposed that the universe started from a primeval fireball and had been expanding and cooling since its inception 10-20 Billion years ago (Bya).

Answer 35

Cosmozoic or Interplanetary

Question 36

Life originated from outer planets in the form of a resistant spore propelled by radiation pressure, reached earth and started the first form of life.

Answer 36

Cosmozoic or Interplanetary

Question 37

Cosmozoic idea was proposed by _______ and supported by ______ and other contemporary

Answer 37

Richter in 1865; Arrhenius (1908)

Question 38

"Something pretty mysterious had to give rise to to the origin of the universe"

Answer 38

Richard Dawkins (Shutterstock)

Question 39

(Cosmozoic) planetary scientist at the University of Chicago and Scott Sanford, a NASA astrophysicist.

Answer 39

Fred Ciesla

Question 40

(Cosmozoic) In 2013, they created a computer model of the ________ - a disk of gas and dust from which the Sun and planets were formed.

Answer 40

solar nebula

Question 41

(Cosmozoic) The primordial debris included icy grains containing

Answer 41

frozen water, ammonia and carbon dioxide, among other molecules.

Question 42

(Cosmozoic) _________ broke the molecular bonds and could have produced organic molecules such as amino acids, amphiphiles and nucleobases.

Answer 42

High-energy UV radiation

Question 43

Physico-chemical theory (Oparin and Haldane)

Answer 43

1. Formation of simple organic compounds 2. Formation of complex organic compounds 3. Formation of molecular aggregates (Coacervates) 4. Formation of first primitive living cell:

Question 44

the primitive inorganic molecules of earth interacted and combined with one another to form simple organic compounds. These were in the form of simple sugars, fatty acids, glycerol, amino acids and nitrogen bases. The availability of energy from volcanic eruption and lighting allowed gases to form simple organic molecules.

Answer 44

1. Formation of simple organic compounds

Question 45

Formation of polysaccharides, lipids, polypeptides and proteins, and nucleic acids.

Answer 45

2. Formation of complex organic compounds

Question 46

Simple sugars combined, form

Answer 46

complex polysaccharides (starch, cellulose).

Question 47

Fatty acids and glycerol molecules combined to form

Answer 47

lipids

Question 48

Amino acids combined forming

Answer 48

polypeptides and proteins.

Question 49

Purines and pyrimidines combined with simple sugars and phosphates to form nucleotides, which then formed

Answer 49

nucleic acids.

Question 50

conducted an experiment stimulating the primitive condition of the Earth. discovered amino acids and organic acids were formed

Answer 50

Stanley Miller (1953)

Question 51

3. _____________: ____ and _____ proposed that the complex organic molecules synthesized abiotically on the primitive earth formed large spherical aggregates as cluster of complex organic molecules bound by fatty acids and divide. They remained suspended as droplets in sea water.

Answer 51

Formation of molecular aggregates (Coacervates): Oparin and Fox

Question 52

Formation of first primitive living cell: formed ___ and ___

Answer 52

primitive cells modern cell membrane

Question 53

proposed that life did not originate in the surface of the earth but deep beneath the sea in or around hydrothermal vents.

Answer 53

Natural or Marine (Primeval Soup)

Question 54

DNA sequences of modern organisms, biologists showed that the most recent common ancestor of all life was an __________ that lived in extremely high temperatures.

Answer 54

aquatic microorganism

Question 55

Organisms alive today are descendants of organisms that lived long ago and have changed and diverged from one another over billions of years.

Answer 55

Evolution

Question 56

He established that all species of life have descended over time from a common ancestor

Answer 56

Charles Darwin

Question 57

Evidence of Evolution

Answer 57

- the fossil record - geographic distribution of living species - homologous body structures - similarities in early development

Question 58

the fossil record which is composed of

Answer 58

physical remains of organisms

Question 59

geographic distribution of living species which indicates

Answer 59

common ancestral species

Question 60

homologous body structures which implies

Answer 60

similar genes

Question 61

similarities in early development which implies

Answer 61

similar genes

Question 62

is the process that drives evolution. Organisms with favorable traits causes gradual change in populations of organisms

Answer 62

Natural Selection or “survival of the fittest”

Question 63

Evolution by natural selection is driven by

Answer 63

competition for resources such as food, habitat, mates, etc.

Question 64

Evolution is both __ and ___.

Answer 64

a theory and a fact

Question 65

The theory of Evolution deals with ___. Our understanding of this process is always changing.

Answer 65

how Evolution happens

Question 66

Evolution is also a fact as there is a __________ for its occurrence.

Answer 66

huge amount of indisputable evidence

Question 67

A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one to Him.... The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator."

Answer 67

Louis Pasteur