Incubating life’s chemical precursors (Image: Scott Kohn/Rex Features)
Building artificial cells will tell us much about the origins of life – and may explain how Darwinian evolution began, says Nobel laureate Jack Szostak
IMAGINE Earth 4 billion years ago. It is a world of oceans, peppered with volcanic land masses resembling Hawaii and Iceland. The volcanoes spew poisonous gases and the atmosphere is rent by the violent impacts of asteroids and comets. Temperatures range from the incandescent heat of flowing lava to the frozen ice fields of the high polar regions. Shallow ponds on the volcanic islands dry …
