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NASA's 2015 strategy for astrobiology aimed to solve the puzzle of the origin of life – how a fully functioning living system could emerge from non-living components – through research on the prebiotic origin of life's chemicals, both in space and on planets, as well as the functioning of early biomolecules to catalyse reactions and support inheritance.
Non-cellular life, also known as acellular life, is life that exists without a cellular structure for at least part of its life cycle. [1] Historically, most definitions of life postulated that an organism must be composed of one or more cells, [2] but, for some, this is no longer considered necessary, and modern criteria allow for forms of life based on other structural arrangements.
Organic matter, organic material, or natural organic matter refers to the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the feces and remains of organisms such as plants and animals . [ 1 ]
List of examples of convergent evolution – Examples of separate lineages of organisms developing similar characteristics; Divergent evolution – Accumulation of differences between closely related species populations, leading to speciation
Spontaneous generation is a superseded scientific theory that held that living creatures could arise from non-living matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. It was hypothesized that certain forms, such as fleas, could arise from inanimate matter such as dust, or that maggots could arise from dead flesh.
Abiogenesis or biopoiesis is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter such as simple organic compounds. Subcategories This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
Abiogenesis – Life arising from non-living matter; Anthropic principle – Hypothesis about sapient life and the universe; Connectionism – Cognitive science approach; Dual-phase evolution – Process that drives self-organization within complex adaptive systems; Emergenesis – The result of a specific combination of several interacting genes
Altogether, these three developments in science presented the wider scientific community with a seemingly paradoxical situation regarding the origin of life: life must have evolved from non-biological precursors after the Earth was formed, and yet spontaneous generation as a theory had been experimentally disproved.