ReviewDie Naturwissenschaften2009
Darwin's warm little pond revisited: from molecules to the origin of life.
Review in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- RNA and proteins joined up at the Origins of Life: Persistence is the point.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Arabinogalactan proteins answer a great puzzle.Cell surface (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Meteorite-common amino acid induces clay exfoliation and abiotic compartment formation.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- The Possible Crystallization Process in the Origin of Bacteria, Archaea, Viruses, and Mobile Elements.Biology · 2024Article
- The bubble theory: exploring the transition from first replicators to cells and viruses in a landscape-based scenario.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2024Article
- Microfluidics-Based Drying-Wetting Cycles to Investigate Phase Transitions of Small Molecules Solutions.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Phosphate in Cardiovascular Disease: From New Insights Into Molecular Mechanisms to Clinical Implications.Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology · 2024Review
- Peptide Bonds in the Interstellar Medium: Facile Catalytic Formation from Nitriles on Water-Ice Grains.The journal of physical chemistry. A · 2023Article
- Spark of Life: Role of Electrotrophy in the Emergence of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- On the potential roles of phosphorus in the early evolution of energy metabolism.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Formation and evolution of C-C, C-O, C[double bond, length as m-dash]O and C-N bonds in chemical reactions of prebiotic interest.RSC advances · 2022Article
- Driving forces in the origins of life.Open biology · 2021Article
- Prebiotic Organic Chemistry of Formamide and the Origin of Life in Planetary Conditions: What We Know and What Is the Future.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Productivity and Community Composition of Low Biomass/High Silica Precipitation Hot Springs: A Possible Window to Earth's Early Biosphere?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Benchmark DFT studies on C-CN homolytic cleavage and screening the substitution effect on bond dissociation energy.Journal of molecular modeling · 2019Article
- Arsenic Response of Three AltiplanicFrontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
- Exposed Areas Above Sea Level on Earth >3.5 Gyr Ago: Implications for Prebiotic and Primitive Biotic Chemistry.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Systems biology of eukaryotic superorganisms and the holobiont concept.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2018Article
- Is pre-Darwinian evolution plausible?Biology direct · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
All known cosmic and geological conditions and laws of chemistry and thermodynamics allow that complex organic matter could have formed spontaneously on pristine planet Earth about 4,000 mya. Simple gasses and minerals on the surface and in oceans of the early Earth reacted and were eventually organized in supramolecular aggregates and enveloped cells that evolved into primitive forms of life. Chemical evolution, which preceded all species of extant organisms, is a fact. In this review, we have concentrated on experimental and theoretical research published over the last two decades, which has added a wealth of new details and helped to close gaps in our previous understanding of this multifaceted field. Recent exciting progress in the molecular and genetic analyses of existing life, in particular microorganisms of ancient origin, even supports the possibility that a cellular, self-reproducing common ancestor might be assembled and resurrected in anaerobic cultures at some time in the future. Charles Darwin did not, and indeed, could not, address and specify the earliest phases of life which preceded the Origin of Species. However, in a famous letter, he sketched "a warm little pond with all sorts of... (chemicals, in which) ...a protein was chemically formed." We try to trace the impact of his charming clear-sighted metaphor up to the present time.
Indexed as
Identifiers
19760276What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.