Can anyone give me the scientific explanation for the origin of life in laymens terms?
Okay, I’ll give it a go. Theory #1: Panspermia (or the delivery of biological compounds to earth from space) by cometary impact. Supposedly, a comet hit the earth a VERY long time ago and left behind some biomolecules. Sounds a bit like a fairy tale, I know. BUT! A research group from the UK took stuff that one finds in comets, loaded said stuff into a bazooka, and fired the thing at a concrete pad. When they analyzed the smudge left behind, lo and behold, they found the building blocks of proteins and sugars, so this is not as farfetched as it might initially sound. Theory #2: Abiogenesis. This theory postulates that molecules you could find in abundance on earth billions of years ago (ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, water, possibly carbon monoxide, etc., but notably not oxygen) can react in the presence of sunlight (very slow) or lightning (a good deal faster) to generate the building blocks of biological molecules like proteins, DNA, fats, sugars, and so on. This was shown by Mi
