Primordial Soup Hypothesis

The Primordial Soup Hypothesis, otherwise known as "The Primordial Soup Theory," was developed by the Russian chemist A.I. Oparin and English geneticist J.B.S. Haldane. Oparin & Haldane(1920) formed this idea separately though. In this theory, the basic aspects of life all came from simple molecules that formed in the atmosphere with the addition of oxygen. They believed that Earth had a chemically reducing atmosphere. This produced monomers. These monomers formed a "soup," that developed organic polymers, and the basic building blocks of life, in the oceans or ponds. Neither scientist had any real evidence to support their theory until Stanley Miller & Harold Urey(1953) decided to test their theory. They used a highly reduced mixture of gases- methane, ammonia and hydrogen- to form organic monomers like amino acids. This experiment gave support to the idea Oparin and Haldane had about the atmosphere being exposed to energy producing monomers. They both believed that organic molecules could have spontaneously formed from
Wachtershauser's(1918) theory proposed that life was developed on the surface of iron sulfide minerals. The way this experiment was tested was the water flow was pressurized and heated with dissolved volcanic gases to 100degrees Celsius. The flow passed over the iron sulfide to form catalytic metallo-peptides. Scientists support this hypothesis because they believe in the biochemistry of iron sulfide being the reason for life.

The Deep Sea World hypothesis, is many simple metabolic reactions emerging near ancient seafloor hot springs, could be a possibility to the beginning of life. In 1977, scientists discovered biological communities living near seafloor deep sea vents. They were far from sunlight, and were living off of chemical soup that would spew from the underwater geysers. This lead scientists such as Jeff Seawald to