The origin of life on Earth

Abstract

How did the enormous variety of life on Earth originate? This is one of the great unsolved mysteries in science. It might come as a surprise to you that we simply don’t know. In the next chapter, you will see that we do have a fair understanding of how life has evolved since its origin. But as to the origin itself, we lack sufficient evidence to uncover how it happened. We are left with little more than a variety of speculations. This is regrettable, because it hampers our ability to establish the likelihood of life arising elsewhere.