Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life

by Nick Lane

In the absence of genes or information, certain cell structures, such as membranes and polypeptides, should form spontaneously, so long as there is a continuous supply of reactive precursors – activated amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids; so long as there is a continuous flux of energy providing the requisite building blocks. Cell structures are forced into existence by the flux of energy and matter. The parts can be replaced but the structure is stable and will persist for as long as the flux persists. This continuous flux of energy and matter is precisely what is missing from the primordial soup. There is nothing in soup that can drive the formation of the dissipative structures that we call cells, nothing to make these cells grow and divide, and come alive, all in the absence of enzymes that channel and drive metabolism.