Abstract
The methodological status of origin-of-life research as an experimental science, predicated on deductive logic, is assessed and illustrated by recent examples.
References
Baaske P, Weinert FM, Duhr S, Lemke KH, Russell MJ, Braun D (2007) Extreme accumulation of nucleotides in simulated hydrothermal pore systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:9346–9351
Bada JL, Lazcano A (2002) Some like it hot, but not the first biomolecules. Science 296:1982–1983
Bernhardt HS, Tate WP (2012) Primordial soup or vinaigrette: did the RNA world evolve at acidic pH? Biol Direct 7:4
Borowska Z, Mauzerall D (1988) Photoreduction of carbon dioxide by aqueous ferrous ion: an alternative to the strongly reducing atmosphere for the chemical origin of life. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:6577–6580
Borowska Z, Mauzerall D (1991) Retraction. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 88:4564
Branscomb E, Russell MJ (2013) Turnstiles and bifurcators: the disequilibrium converting engines that put metabolism on the road. Biochim Biophys A 1827:62–78
Crick F (1981) Life itself. Simon & Schuster, New York
Dörr M, Käßbohrer J, Grunert R, Kreisel G, Brand WA, Werner RA, Geilmann H, Apfel C, Robl C, Weigand W (2003) A possible prebiotic formation of ammonia from dinitrogen on iron sulfide surfaces. Angew Chem Int Ed 42:1540–1543
Filtness MJ, Butler IB, Rickard D (2003) The origin of life: the properties of iron sulphide membranes. Trans Inst Min Metall Sect B 112:171–172
Granick S (1957) Speculations on the origin and evolution of photosynthesis. Ann N Y Acad Sci 69:292–308
Griffin WL, Belousova EA, O’Neill C, O’Reilly SY, Malkovets V, Pearson NJ, Spetsius S, Wilde SA (2014) The world turns over: Hadean-Archaean crust-mantle evolution. Lithos 189:2–15
Grotzinger JP (1994) Trends in Precambrian carbonate sediments and their implication for understanding evolution. In: Bengtson S (ed) Early life on earth: Nobel symposium no. 84. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 245–258
Heinen W, Lauwers AM (1996) Organic sulfur compounds resulting from the interaction of iron sulfide, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide in an anaerobic aqueous environment. Orig Life Evol Biosph 26:131–150
Herschy B, Wicher A, Camprubi E, Watson C, Dartnell L, Ward J, Evans JRG, Lane N (2014) An origin-of-life reactor to simulate alkaline hydrothermal vents. J Mol Evol 79:213–227
Järvinen P, Oivanen M, Lönnberg H (1991) Interconversion and phosphoester hydrolysis of 2′,5′- and 3′,5′-dinucleoside monophosphates: kinetics and mechanisms. J Org Chem 56:5396–5401
Kasting JF (1993) Earth’s early atmosphere. Science 259:920–926
Kemp AIS, Wilde SA, Hawkesworth CJ, Coath CD, Nemchin A, Pidgeon RT, Vervoort JD, DuFrane SA (2010) Hadean crustal evolution revisited: new constraints from Pb-Hf isotope systematics of the Jack Hills zircons. Earth Planet Sci Lett 296:45–56
Kempe S, Degens ET (1985) An early soda ocean? Chem Geol 53:95–108
Kempe S, Kazmierczak J, Degens ET (1989) The soda ocean concept and its bearing on biotic evolution. In: Crick RE (ed) Origin, evolution and modern aspects of biomineralization in plants and animals. Plenum Press, New York, pp 29–39
Koonin EV (2011) The logic of chance. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River
Koonin EV, Martin W (2005) On the origin of genomes and cells within inorganic compartments. Trends Genet 21:647–654
Kua J, Bada JL (2011) Primordial ocean chemistry and its compatibility with the RNA world. Orig Life Evol Biosph 41:553–558
Lane N (2010) Life ascending: the ten great inventions of evolution. W. W. Norton & Co, London
Lane N (2015) The vital question. W. W. Norton & Co, London
MacLeod G, McKeown C, Hall AJ, Russell MJ (1994) Hydrothermal and oceanic pH conditions of possible relevance to the origin of life. Orig Life Evol Biosph 24:19–41
Martin W, Russell MJ (2003) On the origin of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells. Philos Trans R Soc B 358:59–85
Mauzerall D, Borowska Z, Zielinski I (1993) Photo and thermal-reactions of ferrous hydroxide. Orig Life Evol Biosph 23:105–114
Mayr E (1982) The growth of biological thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
McCollom TM (2013) Miller-Urey and beyond: what have we learned about prebiotic organic synthesis reactions in the past 60 years? Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 41:207–229
Monod J (1974) Chance and necessity. Collins, Fontana Books, Glasgow
Morse JW, Mackenzie FT (1998) Hadean ocean carbonate geochemistry. Aquat Geochem 4:301–319
Popper KR (1959) The logic of scientific discovery. Hutchinson, London
Popper KR (1972) Objective knowledge: an evolutionary approach. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Rickard D, Luther GW III (2007) Chemistry of iron sulfides. Chem Rev 107:514–562
Russell MJ (2007) The alkaline solution to the emergence of life: energy, entropy and early evolution. Acta Biotheor 55:133–179
Russell MJ, Arndt NT (2005) Geodynamic and metabolic cycles in the Hadean. Biogeosciences 2:97–111
Russell MJ, Hall AJ (1997) The emergence of life from iron monosulfide bubbles at a submarine hydrothermal redox and pH front. J Geol Soc London 154:377–402
Russell MJ, Hall AJ, Turner D (1989) In vitro growth of iron sulphide chimneys; possible culture chambers for origin-of-life experiments. Terra Nova 1:238–241
Russell MJ, Daniel RM, Hall AJ (1993) On the emergence of life via catalytic iron-sulphide membranes. Terra Nova 5:343–347
Russell MJ, Daniel RM, Hall AJ, Sherringham JA (1994) A hydrothermally precipitated catalytic iron sulphide membrane as a first step toward life. J Mol Evol 39:231–243
Russell MJ, Daia DE, Hall AJ (1998) The emergence of life from FeS bubbles at alkaline hot springs in an acid ocean. In: Wiegel J, Adams MWW (eds) Thermophiles: the keys to molecular evolution and the origin of life. Taylor & Francis, Washington, pp 77–126
Russell MJ, Hall AJ, Martin W (2010) Serpentinization as a source of energy at the origin of life. Geobiology 8:355–371
Sousa FL, Thiergart T, Landan G, Nelson-Sathi S, Pereira IAC, Allen JF, Lane N, Martin WF (2013) Early bioenergetic evolution. Philos Trans R Soc B 368:20130088
Sukumaran PV (2000) Evolution oft the atmosphere and oceans: evidence from the geological records. Resonance 5:4–12
Wächtershäuser G (1988) Before enzymes and templates: theory of surface metabolism. Microbiol Rev 52:452–484
Wächtershäuser G (1990) Evolution of the first metabolic cycles. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87:200–204
Wächtershäuser G (1992) Groundworks for an evolutionary biochemistry: the iron–sulphur world. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 58:85–201
Wächtershäuser G (2007) On the chemistry and evolution of the pioneer organism. Chem Biodivers 4:584–602
Wächtershäuser G (2012) Origin of life: RNA World versus autocatalytic anabolist. In: Rosenberg E et al (eds) The prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin
Walker JCG (1985) Carbon dioxide on the early Earth. Orig Life 16:117–127
Wilde SA, Valley JW, Peck WH, Graham CM (2001) Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the earth 4.4 Gyr ago. Nature 409:175–178
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The title alludes to the essay “In Praise of folly” by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1511).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wächtershäuser, G. In Praise of Error. J Mol Evol 82, 75–80 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-015-9727-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-015-9727-3