Adam Rutherford - Origin of Life - The future of life

Origin of life came from a single cell. Cell theory was death nell of spontaneous generation which reined for 2000 years eg Adam - creation ex nihilo. Aristotle claimed to have seen spontaneous generation. Rotting logs could mutate into crocodiles. SG killed in 1850s. Louis Pasteur swan neck experiment. Cell theory + Evolution ---> one first single cell (Last Universal Common Ancestor). Panspermia - life abounds in universe and was delivered to Earth. Rule it out, no evidence for life outside earth, just science fiction, currently.

Haldane & Oparin - warm little pond - spontaneous life in a primordial soup. Stanley Miller mixed ammonia, methane, hydrogen, carbon dioxide + electrical spark gave 5 amino acids. But AA are not life.

RNA World - can act as catalyst. Ribozymes (RNA enzymes that can self catalyse their own replication) (Joyce et 2009). Life is the opposite of decay (23m). Times law through 2nd law of thermodynamics predicts chaos but life manages to battle against that chaos for almost 4bn year. Life is a tiny pocket of order in a universe of chaos. Life is process of energy capture, primary function is to reproduce. Life is a metabolic process fundamentally, capture of energy. In 1980s, origin of life - an alkaline vent, hydrogen & methane, membranes, maintained energetic disequilibrium. In lab Nick Lane in 2012 in UCL is experimenting with bioreactor. (27m) A porous ceramic material, he will look for basic biochemistry.

Part 2: The sequel. Synthetic Biology. Goats that express spider thread. Fluorescent jellyfish and mice. 35m: Craig Venter in 2011 creation of synthetic life 'Synthia'. Copied and rebooted life. Hela Cells. Cusp of drug and fuel production.

Q&A at Pod Delusion (50 mins)