Some scientists believe that hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor could have provided the ingredients and energy needed to create the planet’s first life. Experiments reproducing the pressure cooker conditions at these seafloor geysers have bolstered this idea by generating several of the organic compounds that cells need to grow and reproduce (SN: 1/9/99, p.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.