What is abiogenesis?

Answer 1

Abiogenesis is a term used to describe two similar but notably separate ideas in science. They involve the basic principle that life can form spontaneously from nonlife.

The earliest version of this, normally refered to as 'spontaneous generation', was held by many philosophers and scientists for millenia; it is the mistaken idea that life such as maggots can arise from dead matter, that aphids grew from the dew on plants or that mice grew from hay.

Fortunately Louis Pasteur, through the use of proper scientific method, showed this idea to be incorrect. Pasteur's Law of Biogenesis simply described states that "life only comes from life not non-life" and applies to the maggots, the mice, the aphids, mammals, insects, bacteria, ... In short, everything currently living on the planet came from something else living on the planet.

The second idea is that now solely referred to by abiogenesis. It involves the process of chemical compounds in a 'primordial soup' becoming able to replicate, and then metabolise other compounds. Several hypotheses of this sort are currently being studied; experiments like the Miller-Urey synthesis have shown in the right conditions, and especially in those which are currently thought to be like that of early Earth, the basics of life can develop on their own in a very short space of time. However, the Miller Urey synthesis has many critics and it is far from having produced life, especially as complex as a "simple cell." That is also why some atheist scientists (such as R. Dawkins) suggest that life might have come from outer space...