Life may stem from volcanic eruptions

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. space agency-funded research suggests lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists, along with researchers at Indiana University reached that conclusion after re-analyzing samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment conducted in the early 1950s.

"Historically, you don't get many experiments that might be more famous than these; they re-defined our thoughts on the origin of life and showed unequivocally that the fundamental building blocks of life could be derived from natural processes," said the study's lead author Adam Johnson, a graduate student with the NASA Astrobiology Institute team at Indiana University.

"This research is both a link to the experimental foundations of astrobiology as well as an exciting result leading toward greater understanding of how life might have arisen on Earth," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the space agency's Ames Research Center.

The study that included James Cleaves of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Antonio Lazcano of the National Autonomous University of Mexico is reported in the journal Science.