Imagine that 4 billion years ago, extraterrestrials arrived on our planet determined to seed it with life. Where might these Johnny Appleseeds have placed their "life start-up kit" amidst the hot lava and ground-shattering meteors of early Earth? A recent experiment presented here at a Royal Society meeting apparently rules out puddles of volcanically heated water.
Astrobiologists--and others who study life's origins--believe the first native Earthlings may have formed in baths of boiling water. This notion is in part based on recent discoveries of rugged microbes that thrive in hot springs and around hydrothermal vents on the sea floor.