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Post the link to the Science News article "Life on Earth may have begun in hostile hot springs" to your virtual classroom. Ask students to read the article for homework and prepare for online class by answering the first question. Before the class meets, provide the students with the links to all articles they will need for class. Class discussion can be conducted via Zoom; the research and recipe-building components can be conducted in breakout rooms.

Paul Andersen describes the major mutations found in the living world. He starts with an analogy comparing the information in DNA with the information in a recipe. Changes in the DNA can result in changes to the protein, like changes in the recipe can result in changes in the food. He describes the three major point mutations; substitutions, deletions and insertions. He also describes several chromosomal mutations.

What is the recipe for life? If you were to build a cell from scratch, what ingredients would you need? And what kind of environment would you need to cook inanimate matter into a living cell? These are the questions that occupy biochemist Jack Szostak, as he imagines the dynamic world where life was born.

extension: Who Robbed the DNA; DNA Build