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Origins of Life Abiogenesis article in Wikipedia. The Origin of Life - Abiogenesis, a youtube video produced by Chuck Kopec.  A Simpler Origin for Life, an article by Robert Shapiro in Scientific American. The Miller-Urey Experiment article in Wikipedia. RNA and the RNA World Exploring the New RNA World, an essay by Thomas Cech published on the Nobel Prize website. RNA Video Clips from the HHMI website that include demonstrations of catalysis and interviews with Thomas Cech. A World Apart, an HHMI article about RNA World reseearch and the role of RNAs in medicine.  RNA World article in Wikipedia. Protocells The Emergence of Cells During the Origin of Life, an essay by Irene Chen published in Science.  What Came Before DNA? an article published in Discover featuring Jack Szostak and Steven Benner.  The Szostak Lab Astrobiology The National Astrobiology Institute, established by NASA to study life in the universe.  The SETI Institute, studying the origins, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.  Astrobiology: The Search for Life, a website hosted by the Exploratorium.

Life sciences focus on all things living, exploring the patterns, processes and relationships of organisms. The goal of life sciences is to demonstrate how unifying principles can help us to make sense of the natural world and solve problems in the world we live in. High school life sciences extend student knowledge of topics such as organisms, ecosystems, heredity and evolution, integrating a long history of scientific research from multiple fields. In high school, students will build on their conceptual understanding of life sciences by investigating and witnessing the relationships among structure and function, matter and energy, ecosystems and natural selection. Students should be able to effectively communicate facts and findings, as supported in the science literacy skills covered in the Common Core State Standards.

Watch this video (6:30), play with the interactive version of the 'Tree of Life' and sign up to Tree of Life updates at http://www.wellcometreeoflife.org. This six-minute Tree of Life video appeared on the BBC One programme 'Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life' narrated by David Attenborough.

The Miller-Urey experiment was the first attempt to scientifically explore ideas about the origin of life. Stanley Miller simulated conditions thought be common on the ancient Earth. The purpose was to test the idea that the complex molecules of life (in this case, amino acids) could have arisen on our young planet through simple, natural chemical reactions. The experiment was a success in that amino acids, the building blocks of life, were produced during the simulation. The finding was so significant that it kick started an entirely new field of study: Prebiotic Chemistry. Scientists now have reason to believe that the gases used in the Miller-Urey simulation were not actually the same as those of the ancient atmosphere. Because of this, many experiments have since been done, testing a wide variety of atmospheres and different environmental conditions. The results are overwhelming: the molecules of life can form under a wide variety of ancient Earth-like conditions. Many questions about the origin of life remain to be answered but these findings give strong support to the idea that the first living cells on Earth may have emerged from natural chemical reactions.

In biology classes, students are typically taught that spontaneous generation does not take place. And yet, at the origin of life, life had to arise without parents from abiotic processes. What were those processes that gave rise to the first life?  This case study uses an interrupted format to guide students through the Miller-Urey experiment of 1953, which showed that organic molecules could be produced from abiotic precursors and conditions thought to be prevalent on the early Earth. The case also addresses the more speculative implications about where these reactions may have taken place to create the organic building blocks of life on this planet. The first three parts of the case, which explore the Miller-Urey experiment, are ideal for introductory biology courses and take about 45-50 minutes to complete. The remaining sections, which explore whether such chemical reactions took place in outer space, were used in a non-major astrobiology course and require a further hour to complete.

The data comes from the open Tree of Life Project, a collaboration among biologists and other scientists around the world. It contains decades' worth of work in phylogeny, evolutionary history of and relationships among groups of organisms. The project is about a year away from a complete tree of all life, Rosindell said. He wanted a system in place that could visualize it as soon as it's ready. Right now, OneZoom only contains mammals, but that's still more than 5,000 species, all correlated with each other and color-coded according to their threat levels. Rosindell has big plans for the rest, and he even wants to build a searchable app for smartphones, showcasing the history and relationships between all life on Earth.

The groundwater is cold, deep and twice as salty as seawater, but the water streaming out of Blood Falls, which teems with microbes, tells us that it is unlikely to be lifeless. "The fact that the [water] contains metabolically active micro-organisms that appear to be suited to life in a dark, cold brine supports the idea that life should persist throughout the subsurface," says Mikucki. If so, those microbes could be fuelling life in the Southern Ocean. By breaking down iron-containing rocks they might be dumping as much as 170 million kilograms of iron into the ocean each year, according to the researchers' estimates, helping to explain why marine productivity is seasonally very high near to the coast.

Biologists estimate that there are about 5 to 100 million species of organisms living on Earth today. Evidence from morphological, biochemical, and gene sequence data suggests that all organisms on Earth are genetically related, and the genealogical relationships of living things can be represented by a vast evolutionary tree, the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life then represents the phylogeny of organisms, i. e., the history of organismal lineages as they change through time. It implies that different species arise from previous forms via descent, and that all organisms, from the smallest microbe to the largest plants and vertebrates, are connected by the passage of genes along the branches of the phylogenetic tree that links all of Life (Figure 1).

This is a 3.5 minute HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music, which introduces the viewer to the Origins of LIFE on Earth. It is designed as a motivational "trailer" to be shown by Biology and Life Science teachers in middle and high school and college as a visual "Introduction" to the topic of how life began.

Origin of life - volcanic pools - ocean floor - outer space

"A short 3.6 minute visually stunning introductory trailer choreographed to powerful music that introduces the viewer/student to the characteristics that all life on Earth shares. I made this for use by teachers of Biology and the Life Sciences as a motivational introduction to the wonders of life and the amazing characteristics that we all possess. As a High School Biology teacher myself, I have found these videos a great way to capture student interest immediately."

3:40 This visually stunning introductory trailer choreographed to powerful music introduces the viewer to the characteristics that all life on Earth shares. It is designed for use by teachers of Biology and the Life Sciences as a motivational introduction to the wonders of life and the amazing characteristics that we all possess. 

Part 2 of 2. David Attenborough explains how early sea life developed and adapted to dry land, becoming Reptiles and Amphibians. After the era of the Dinosaurs came to a sudden end, Mammal species began to proliferate. From BBC 1 documentary 'Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life'.

Shape of Life is a series of FREE short classroom videos that beautifully illustrate the evolution of the animal kingdom on planet earth. Based upon an original PBS Series, Shape of Life is especially designed for students and teachers who want a first-hand account of how animals adapt and thrive. The series is NGSS aligned with exquisite focus on diversity, biodiversity, adaptability, body structure, design, behaviors, and the innovative scientists who explore these creatures.

Shape of Life is a series of FREE short classroom videos that beautifully illustrate the evolution of the animal kingdom on planet earth. Based upon an original PBS Series, Shape of Life is especially designed for students and teachers who want a first-hand account of how animals adapt and thrive. The series is NGSS aligned with exquisite focus on diversity, biodiversity, adaptability, body structure, design, behaviors, and the innovative scientists who explore these creatures.

But now, a century and a half later, scientists from 11 different institutions have joined forces to amass all of that information, plus new data, to create the most comprehensive version of the tree so far. As detailed in a recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new Tree of Life shows how 2.3 million different types of animals, plants, fungi and microbes are interconnected, and how those relationships have diverged since life began on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago.

In this article, we'll examine scientific ideas about the origin of life on Earth. The when of life's origins (3.53.53, point, 5 billion years ago or more) is well-supported by fossils and radiometric dating. But the how is much less understood. In comparison to the central dogma or the theory of evolution, hypotheses about life's origins are much more...hypothetical. No one is sure which hypothesis is correct - or if the correct hypothesis is still out there, waiting to be discovered.

From single-celled organisms to giant redwoods, Life Science explores all of Earth's life forms. Use interactive, animated activities to identify the living and nonliving components of an ecosystem, design a Venn diagram to compare the migrations of monarch butterflies and red knot shorebirds, and take a virtual field trip to a solar farm. Resources in Life Science gives you a wide range of topics, including the cell cycle, genetic disorders, and bioethics.

Darwin's theory of biological evolution helps us understand how simple life forms can give rise to complex lifeforms, but how did the first reproducing creatures come about? The origin of life needs its own explanation.

Origins of life with self-replicating molecules

Women who are overweight while pregnant are more likely to have babies who are biologically older than those born to women of a healthy weight. This could put the babies at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases later in life, and may reduce their life expectancy. Our biological age is linked to the length of our telomeres - bits of DNA that cap the ends of our chromosomes. Our telomeres shrink every time our cells divide, and continue to shorten throughout life. "Short telomeres have been associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis," says Tim Nawrot at Hasselt University in Belgium.