On the origin of life. An incomplete scientific story

Authors

  • Juli Peretó University of Valencia (Spain).
  • Antonio Lazcano National Autonomous University of Mexico.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.21100

Abstract

«The question of the origin of life is one of the fundamental problems of science.» Few would disagree with this statement by the Russian biochemist Alexander I. Oparin, pioneer in the scientific study of the transition from inanimate matter to the primitive forms of life. The naturalist and evolutionary approach to the problem of the origin of life on Earth enabled the experimental study, but it is amazingly complex, so it is impossible to tackle the issue from a single scientific discipline. Therefore, what we see is the paradigm of multidisciplinary studies, one that interests astronomers, geologists, chemists, physicists or biologists and can require observation and experimentation, as well as computational simulation and theoretical speculation. That is why, even if we do not create a comprehensive list, we should add mathematicians, computer scientists and philosophers to the army of scholars interested on the emergence of the earliest forms of life.

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Author Biographies

Juli Peretó, University of Valencia (Spain).

Tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and researcher at the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Valencia (Spain). He has published several works on metabolic evolution, symbiosis, the problem of defining life or the history of ideas on the natural origin and the artificial synthesis of life. From 2014, he is a Fellow of the ISSOL (International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life).

Antonio Lazcano, National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Full Professor of the origin of life at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is the author of scientific papers and books on the early stages of the evolution of life and has a long career in science communication in written media, radio, and television. He is the director of the Lynn Margulis Galapagos Centre. He was the President of the ISSOL twice and was made an Honorary Doctor by the universities of Milan, Valencia, and Michoacán. Since 2014, he has been a member of El Colegio Nacional, the highest cultural and scientific distinction in Mexico. His current research interests include the chemistry of the origin of life and the use of phylogenomic databases to reconstruct the early stages of cell evolution.

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Published

2021-06-17

How to Cite

Peretó, J., & Lazcano, A. (2021). On the origin of life. An incomplete scientific story. Metode Science Studies Journal, (6), 142–143. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.21100
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Issue

Science grid: The public understanding of science (2016)

Section

On the origin of life. An incomplete scientific story

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