Experiments hint at how molecules essential to all life first arose

A series of chemistry experiments suggest that a molecule that provides energy for all living cells, called ATP, could have been forged in geothermal vents in the ocean or created in freshwater ponds

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

A series of chemistry experiments hint at how an energy-storing molecule found in all living cells could have first arisen on Earth.

All living things use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a source of energy for biological processes, such as breaking down food. Because it is so universal, it probably formed in the earliest stages of the origins of life. It is also a precursor to RNA and DNA so had it formed that early, it would have also been a meaningful step …