EEMB 2290 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Chon, Chemical Evolution, Ozone Layer
26 Apr 2018
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Intro to Evolution
Reading list # 4
Topic: What is Life? Where, when, how, why…
Origin of Life
Articles, videos, audios on reserve (Blackboard)
Vocabulary:
Big Bang 15 billion years ago
Clock analogy on the major evolutionary innovations
5 billion years ago: The Earth formed about 5-4.5 billion years ago, but rock bodies left over from the
origin of the solar system bombarded the surface for the first few hundred million years, making it
unlikely that life could survive.
3.7 billion years ago: life originated
CHONPS:
• Small atoms
• Form covalent bonds
• With the exception of H, all other atoms can form covalent bonds with 2 or more atoms,
producing complex molecules
• All are reactive (need to fill their outer orbital to be “happy”)
Conditions of Early Earth:
• C,H,O,N,P,S present in water
• Methane gas, Ammonia, lots of Hydrogen (reducing chemical tendencies)
• Water cycle had already been established
• Anaerobic conditions (no free Oxygen in atmosphere) and no Ozone layer
• Lightening and intense UV radiation (provided energy)
• Volcanoes (warm temperatures)
• Life originated in the primordial soup
Miller-Urey’s experiment: attempted to re-create the conditions of the primitive Earth in the
laboratory
Abiotic synthesis of organic compounds could take place in the lab which then spontaneously bonded
together to form polymers such as amino acids, RNA with autocatalytic properties
Biogenesis
Oparin: hypothesized the conditions under which the first living organisms could have appeared.. He
hypothesized that life was preceded by a long period of chemical evolution
Chemical evolution: The formation of complex organic molecules from simpler inorganic molecules
through chemical reactions in the oceans during the early history of the Earth
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chonps: small atoms, form covalent bonds, with the exception of h, all other atoms can form covalent bonds with 2 or more atoms, producing complex molecules, all are reactive (need to fill their outer orbital to be happy ) Miller-urey"s experiment: attempted to re-create the conditions of the primitive earth in the laboratory. Abiotic synthesis of organic compounds could take place in the lab which then spontaneously bonded together to form polymers such as amino acids, rna with autocatalytic properties. Oparin: hypothesized the conditions under which the first living organisms could have appeared He hypothesized that life was preceded by a long period of chemical evolution. Chemical evolution: the formation of complex organic molecules from simpler inorganic molecules through chemical reactions in the oceans during the early history of the earth. Cyanobacteria: photosynthesis evolved relatively early produce o2 as a byproduct of its metabolism. Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic organisms that split water and produce o2 as a byproduct, evolved over.
