Nick Lane on the Hydrothermal Vent Hypothesis for the Origin of Life, Early Evolution, and the Definition of Life

Nick Lane presents his compelling hypothesis for the origin of life, positing that deep-sea hydrothermal vents provided the ideal conditions. He argues that the exergonic reaction between carbon dioxide and hydrogen, releasing energy, was the fundamental power source. The early Earth's environment, specifically wet rocky planets with these vents, naturally generated abundant hydrogen gas and electrical charges on cell-like pores, which could drive the complex chemistry necessary for early life. Lane emphasizes that life on Earth is fundamentally carbon-based, cellular, and powered by electrical charges across membranes, suggesting these characteristics are not arbitrary but deeply rooted in the physics and chemistry of the early planet.

Lane distinguishes his model from the traditional "primordial soup" theory, highlighting the importance of continuous chemical flow and self-organization within the vent systems, rather than a static accumulation of molecules. He views panspermia as an unhelpful concept for understanding the *principles* governing life's emergence, as it merely shifts the origin question elsewhere. A key point of discussion is the early divergence between Bacteria and Archaea, which Lane interprets as evidence for a single origin of life from a common ancestor that then rapidly diverged, possibly due to different strategies for powering their membranes upon leaving the vent environment. He also stresses that the absence of oxygen was critical for life's origin, as its presence would have favored explosive hydrogen-oxygen reactions over the necessary hydrogen-CO2 chemistry.

For future research, Lane advocates for developing a testable intellectual framework that can explain the step-by-step progression from a sterile inorganic planet to living cells, emphasizing the need for experimental validation at each stage. He critiques many existing definitions of life, including NASA's, finding them often flawed or overly pedantic. Instead, he offers a descriptive view of life as a system capable of "parasitizing the environment" to create relatively exact informational copies of itself. He also references Michael Levin's work on electrical fields controlling development in planarian worms, suggesting a potential "rebirth" for the concept of sudden, abrupt evolutionary changes, or "hopeful monsters.

Broadening the scope, Lane describes Earth itself as a "planetary battery," with a continuous flow of electrons from its interior to its surface, a topology mirrored at the cellular level. This suggests an inherent planetary trajectory influencing life's emergence and favoring certain chemical reactions. He posits that water and carbon are fundamental, making it highly probable that extraterrestrial life would also be carbon-based and water-dependent. Finally, he challenges the anthropocentric notion of an inevitable trajectory towards complexity, noting that bacteria dominated the planet for two billion years without significant change before the singular origin of eukaryotic cells, implying that increased complexity is not a guaranteed outcome of evolution.

well the source of energy at the origin of life is the reaction between carbon dioxide and hydrogen and amazingly most of these reactions are exergonic which is to say they release energy

why doesn't that happen is because of the kinetic barriers it's because that's where you need the spark

my answer is from a biologist's point of view that has been missing from the equation over decades which is well what does life do on earth what what why is it this way why is it made of cells why is it made of carbon why does it why is it powered by electrical charges on membranes

life is made of carbon basically primarily organic molecules with carbon-carbon bonds and the building block the lego brick that we take out of the air or take out of the oceans is carbon dioxide and to turn carbon dioxide into organic molecules we need to strap on hydrogen

as soon as we introduce genes information into systems that are growing anyway so i i would i would talk about growing protocells as soon as we in introduce even random bits of information into into there I'm thinking about rna molecules for example it doesn't have to have any information it can be completely random sequence but if it's introduced into a system which is in any case growing and doubling itself and reproducing itself then any changes in that sequence that allow it to do so better or worse are now selected by perfectly normal natural selection

all we know is that there's a single common ancestor for all of life there could have been multiple origins and they all just disappeared

panspermia properly that just pushes the question somewhere else that just even if it's true maybe life did start on earth by panspermia but but so what are the principles that govern the emergence of life on any planet

the planet is a battery it's a giant battery and we have a flow of electrons going from inside to outside in these hydrothermal vents and that's the same topology that a cell has a cell is basically just a micro version of the planet

there is no trajectory necessary trajectory towards great complexity in human beings at the end of it it's very easy to imagine that without photosynthesis arising or without eukaryotes arising that a planet could be full of bacteria and nothing else

this is a kind of a description of life is that it's it's able to parasitize the environment and that goes for plants as well as animals and bacteria and viruses to make a a relatively exact copy of themselves informationally exact copy of themselves