Did Life Originate Underwater?

TuringTest writes "Sciencedaily reports a highly controversial new theory about the origins of life from Professor William Martin of the University of Dusseldorf and Dr Michael Russell of the Scottish Environmental Research Centre in Glasgow. The theory briefly states that inorganic cells where first, then living systems evolved inside these incubators which allowed an enough rich micro-environment. The small compartments would have been formed in iron sulphide rocks near hot, hydrothermal vents on the sea floor, not in the atmosphere. Wow, that would answer the chicken-egg problem."

Comments

Headline is misleading

[Phronesis]

It's been known for a long time that life originated underwater. Until living things produced enough oxygen to create an ozone layer, there was too much ultraviolet light at the surface for life to thrive.

Underwater, UV was blocked, but longer wavelengths could penetrate to permit photosynthesis. Once photosynthesis liberated enough molecular oxygen to produce an ozone layer, life was able to move onto dry land.

What's novel about the theory in the article is that it proposes that living cells were preceded by nonliving inorganic cells.