BIOL 1001 Chapter : Chapter 17 The History Of Life
Document Summary
People used to believe that new organisms sprang up by way of _spontaneous generation. Experiments disproved spontaneous generation (about the maggots not coming out of nowhere- fig. Pasteur also performed experiments that refuted spontaneous generation. The first living things must have come from nonliving materials. We know that organic molecules can form spontaneously from non-living materials under low oxygen conditions. The first living things must have come from nonliving material. Some rna molecules, called ribozymes, can catalyze reactions (fig. Membrane-like vesicles may have enclosed ribozymes forming protocells. But there is no real evidence of how life began. Early earth was thought to be very hot with a lot volcanic activity and electrical storms- fig. Lots of volcanic activity, meteorite strikes and electrical storms. The oldest fossil organisms found so far are about _3. 5 billion years old. The first cells were probably _anaerobic(no oxygen) prokaryotes.
