God. Most of America seems to think this supernatural wonder exists. They blame the rise of humans on this being. The real truth, however, needs no super powers or magic to happen. Life was created without divine intervention in a more modern creation story…

In the beginning…

There was what is called a “primordial soup.” This “soup” of sorts was full of organic molecular structures that formed naturally by synthesizing reactions or were brought to earth from space by comets, asteroids, etc. These reactions were fueled by sources of energy such as the sun, hot underwater vents, lighting, and other such energy forms. These molecules would be floating around in the world’s ocean, (at this time there would be only one ocean) moved by wave action, tidal forces, and convection currents.

Modern cells separate themselves from the outside world with a lipid bilayer. Early cells could have been formed by free floating fatty acids (which would be common in the pre-biotic environment) which spontaneously can form stable vesicles. These vesicles would be open enough to let small molecules in and out of the vesicle. Vesicles grow by incorporating other free floating fatty acids into their structure.

These early vesicles could be broken apart by mechanical forces such as wave action against rocks. Small molecules that were trapped in these vesicles would not be lost as the vesicle would close almost immediately. Some of these small molecules would be nucleotides like that in modern DNA. Some nucleotides are capable of spontaneous polymerization. Each monomer will bind with another and create chains. These chains can also be added on to by self-ligation. Once these monomers that can float into the vesicles are polymerized, they can no longer fit back outside of the vesicle.

Through convection currents, these polymer strands will be separated into two separate strands, and the vesicle will be more permeable to monomers due to the heat. The individual polymer strands will still not be able to fit out of the vesicle, but new monomers will be able to come in and bind with the polymer strands once the temperature cools. This keeps happening as the convection current controls the vesicle.

Due to the polymers, the water concentration in the vesicles will now be reduces, and osmosis will force more water into the vesicles, increasing the pressure. Vesicles with more polymers and therefore more pressure will take lipids from other vesicles with fewer polymers, therefore beginning the process of competition.

Larger vesicles are more easily broken by mechanical forces and the pieces retain the polymers that the “parent” vesicle had. Polymers that has been replicated by convection currents will be “inherited” into the “daughter vesicles” Since vesicles with more polymers can steal lipids from smaller vesicles, and polymer replication depends on the monomers available matching the polymers in the cell, vesicles with more common monomers in them would replicate the polymers faster, grow faster, and break up faster, therefore dominating vesicles with slower-reproducing polymers. This is the beginning of natural selection and evolution.

These early polymers (which later become DNA) contain no information and are selected for only based on ability to replicate faster. Mutations could occur and mutations that sped up the process of replication would soon take over the population. For instance, a vesicle that contains an enzyme to help split the double stranded polymers into single strands would speed up reproduction and be selected for. Certain early nucleotides could function as enzymes. These enzymes in the vesicle would use high energy particles from the ocean near thermal vents to create nucleotides to match the strand of polymers. They could also potentially synthesize lipids from chemicals in the environment to add to their wall which would help the cell grow faster and hence be broken up faster and replicate faster. Lastly, these enzymes could modify their lipids so they can’t leave the vesicle.

All of these developments can happen spontaneously and need no divine intervention. These vesicles could grow, replicate, pass on information, use energy from the environment, and evolve. This hypothesis has been tested and proven in labs. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the origin of life without the supernatural.