Hi Kate, Do you believe that life may have evolved from sub-atomic particles which combined in the dust clouds of

Question: Hi Kate, Do you believe that life may have evolved from sub-atomic particles which combined in the dust clouds of space and transported to the Earth, or does your evidence that you have collected suggest that they chemicals were combined when chemicals that were already on the Earth combined, in areas such as volcanic trenches and vents? Thanks
- Keywords:
  dust clouds,
  sub-atomic,
  trenches,
  volcanic
Asked by awood to Katie on 19 Jun 2011.
- Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:
  
  Hi Awood,
  
  There is a lot of evidence to suggest a lot of the chemicals that we needed for life to start came to the Earth via meteorites. For example – the element phosphorus is found a lot in our biology. It is an essential component of our DNA, cell membranes and ATP which is our energy source. However, the phosphorus that was on Early Earth was extremely insoluble and unreactive. It has been found that sources of soluble, reactive phosphorus compounds can be sourced from meteorites.
  
  Compounds such as amino acids, very important in biology for proteins and enzymes, and nucleobases. found in DNA, have found to be present in meteorites.
  
  I think the compounds from meteorites together with compounds found on the Early Earth would have combined and reacted to form the chemicals life needed to start.