The commonplace phrase "life originated in the ocean" is familiar to almost every student from a biology course. But how exactly it could arise, who or what sowed the seed of life on planet Earth. There are a lot of questions, there are answers, and there are also many of them: from banal hypotheses, theories, confirmed by scientific experiments, to fantastic assumptions that hardly fit into the minds of skeptics.
In 1953, Stanley Miller, a chemist at the University of Chicago, tried to recreate the conditions under which life could have originated on Earth. He filled an experimental flask with a mixture of methane, ammonia and hydrogen, and then passed an electric current through this solution, simulating a lightning discharge. After a while, the contents of the flask changed - amino acids appeared in it, which are necessary for the existence of living organisms. The results of the experiment were stunning: in a test tube, the original conditions of life were recreated after almost 4 billion years. The experiment was repeated in 2008. The theory of spontaneous generation had many supporters. But there were critics who did not consider it an absolute truth. According to scientists, the theory of spontaneous chemical evolution, recreated by Miller, does not stand up to criticism, because those 5 amino acids (in 2008 - 20), which were synthesized as a result of the experiment, differ significantly from their natural counterparts. A qualitative analysis showed that the experimental set of organic compounds contains too little “building material” - carbon. The question remains open, and it is necessary to look for new answers. Back in 1865, the German scientist Richter put forward the theory of panspermia - a hypothesis about the origin of life from space. This theory was supported by prominent scientists of that time G. Helmholtz and S. Arrhenius. It was assumed that the spores of bacteria and viruses were brought to Earth by meteorites, asteroids or comets. It seemed that there were no white spots in panspermia, but after a while cosmic rays, radiation and its destructive effect on all living things were discovered. Plus, not a single crater older than 2 billion years has been found on Earth - time has erased all traces of earlier disasters. Bottom line: interest in panspermia has noticeably faded away. In the middle of the 20th century, after the lunar soil was delivered to Earth, it turned out that living microorganisms were found in the soil from the lunar surface. They remembered the theory of the origin of life from the outside. And the fact that organic compounds were also found in cometary and meteorite matter added voices in favor of the meteorite hypothesis of the appearance of life on our planet. From the point of view of religion, everything that exists in the Universe was created by God the Creator. This theory is called "creationism." Of course, in scientific circles she is not taken seriously, but she has a huge number of supporters among believers. The stages of the emergence of peace and life are described in the first chapters of the Bible. Some researchers are trying to fit ancient texts into modern theories, but one can just as well search for a hydrogen bomb in the myths of Ancient Greece.
