Origins of Life II: Lipids, Membranes, and Protocells

Further Exploration

Jack Szostak: The origin of life on Earth

(iBiology) A three-part video lecture by Dr. Jack Szostak exploring ancient earth's environment and the development of life, protocells, and chemical nucleic acid replication.

Center for Chemical Evolution - Research

Explores three themes related to the chemical evolution of life: (1) model prebiotic reactions, (2) prebiotic molecules, and (3) synthesis of proto-biopolymers.

News & Events

First life and next life

(MIT Technology Review) Dr. David Deamer discusses his research into the origin of life and synthetic biology.

Researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum

(Science) Reports on a paper that theorizes a scenario where all the building blocks for life could be gathered in one setting.

Research

Self-sustained replication of an RNA enzyme

Lincoln, Tracey A., and Gerald F. Joyce. (2009). Self-sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme. Science, 323(5918), 1229–1232. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1167856

Google Scholar

Google - Research database allows searching of the scholarly literature.

Experiment!

Exploring Life's Origins

Uses molecular illustrations and animations to help describe origins of life research and theories.

Cell membrane animation

From John Kyrk, learn about a cell membrane and how it works.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States

National Academies Press: A Framework for K-12 Science Education