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1-Page Summary of The Vital Question
First came prokaryote cells. Two fused to form a eukaryote cell, which then evolved into every complex organism on Earth today.
Billions of years ago, a simple bacteria cell engulfed an even simpler archaea cell. Against all odds, elements of that archaea survived digestion and became mitochondria in the cells we have today. These complex life forms evolved from these larger cells over the next 1.5 billion to two billion years. The author writes “there is a black hole in biology” because scientists don’t know why life has taken this course or how it came about.”
It is rare for bacteria to eat other cells, but it does happen. When this happens, a new species might be created through the fusion of two different cells. This may have happened only once in Earth’s history and possibly never before that or since then.
Life on Earth probably sprang from alkaline hydrothermal vents.
Lane explains how, for a long time, scientists believed that life on Earth began in the sea. They thought that bacteria evolved from a primordial soup and got energy from ultraviolet rays or lightning. However, there are many gaps in this theory. Evidence suggests that life began earlier than previously believed – about four billion years ago – when the Earth had abundant rock, water and carbon dioxide. Scientists don’t know exactly what sparked life to begin but they have discovered clues about how simple cells create energy by combining these elements together.
Chemiosmotic coupling is used by prokaryotes and eukaryotes to harness energy. Energy metabolism must have evolved early in order for life to develop from rocks, water, and CO2. Billions of years ago, Earth was a water world with much higher concentrations of hydrogen and CO2 than today. This environment would have had something like ATP as an energy source. Simple amino acids present in minerals might have concentrated and joined into strings that could be combined further to form rudimentary RNA capable of self-replication.
Lane believes that the origin of life can be found in alkaline hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. These vents have all of the elements necessary for rudimentary cell life, including carbon and free energy. They also produce RNA, which is a precursor to DNA, and they provide ways to make cell walls and get rid of waste products. The odds are slim that another place would have these same conditions where life could’ve started.
Chemical reactions in the vents of modern alkaline hydrothermal vents are similar to those that happen inside a cell’s membrane, which allows for proton gradients across membranes. This offers a clue about how life on Earth began—the common ancestor of bacteria and archaea evolved in these kinds of vents.
Organisms burn externally sourced energy and eject the waste. This “respiration” is essential for life on Earth.
The process of respiration is common to all living things. It involves taking energy from the environment and causing entropy, which is basically increasing disorder. All lifeforms have mitochondria that pump protons in cells more than stars fill the universe.
Chemical reactions release energy that cells can use to grow and reproduce. Alkaline hydrothermal vents provide a lot of this chemical energy, and because all life is based on these reactions, it makes sense that they are the most likely place for life to form.
Chemiosmotic coupling makes ATP by using a gradient of protons across a membrane. The protons are created from the vents that spew hot water and chemicals into the ocean, which is then used to create ATP. This process may have started in the early earth when there was an abundance of amino acids around hydrothermal vents, which could create pressure on either side of the vent so that they would not be blocked by any other matter or materials.
