Discovering the origins of life
25 Nov 2021
On the moment when something entirely new emerged from inanimate matter: The CRC “Emergence of Life” and the Deutsches Museum developed the game AEON.
25 Nov 2021
On the moment when something entirely new emerged from inanimate matter: The CRC “Emergence of Life” and the Deutsches Museum developed the game AEON.
It’s almost four billion years before the present day. The young Earth is not yet a very comfortable place, but it has cooled down. The comet and meteorite bombardment has left its mark, the collision with Mars-sized planet Theia created the Moon and the conditions for Earth’s magnetic field. Thick clouds now hang in the orange sky and the ocean resembles a greenish soup. There isn’t much land yet, just a few bare black rocks jutting out of the muddy water. But deep down in the ocean — or perhaps somewhere else entirely — something is happening: the first life is emerging from simple biomolecules such as fatty acids and amino acids that come together to form membranes and RNA sequences. At some point, the smallest of all living things must have emerged: a first cell, enveloped and bounded by a membrane.