Darwin y El Origen De La Vida

Orig Life Evol Biosph DOI 10.1007/s11084-009-9172-7 SPECIAL INVITED PAPER

Charles Darwin and the Origin of Life
Juli Peretó & Jeffrey L. Bada & Antonio Lazcano

Received: 25 June 2009 / Accepted: 9 July 2009 # The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract When Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species 150 years ago he consciously avoideddiscussing the origin of life. However, analysis of some other texts written by Darwin, and of the correspondence he exchanged with friends and colleagues demonstrates that he took for granted the possibility of a natural emergence of the first life forms. As shown by notes from the pages he excised from his private notebooks, as early as 1837 Darwin was convinced that “the intimate relation ofLife with laws of chemical combination, & the universality of latter render spontaneous generation not improbable”. Like many of his contemporaries, Darwin rejected the idea that putrefaction of preexisting organic compounds could lead to the appearance of organisms. Although he favored the possibility that life could appear by natural processes from simple inorganic compounds, his reluctance todiscuss the issue resulted from his recognition that at the time it was possible to undertake the experimental study of the emergence of life. Keywords Darwin . Warm little pond . Origin of life . Spontaneous generation

Introduction What did Darwin think about the origin of life? His opinion seems to have changed over time from his original remark in the 1861 3rd edition of The Origin of Species«…it is no
Invited Paper J. Peretó Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva and Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat de València, Apartat Postal 22085, 46071 València, Spain J. L. Bada Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0212, USA A. Lazcano (*) Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Apdo. Postal 70-407, Cd.Universitaria, 04510 Mexico D.F., Mexico e-mail: alar@correo.unam.mx

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valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life», which he reiterated in a letter he mailed to his close friend Joseph Dalton Hooker on March 29, 1863, in which he wrote that «…it is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one mightas well think of origin of matter». But yet, in a now famous paragraph in the letter sent to the same addressee on February 1st, 1871, he stated that «it is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living being are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sort of ammonia andphosphoric salts,—light, heat, electricity present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed [...]». Darwin’s opinions on the origin of the first organisms thus varied somewhat during his life, but never lead to thedramatic shift that could be implied by reading only the two paragraphs included. Indeed, a careful examination and critical reading of his public and private writings shows that what appear to be contradictory opinions on the problem of the emergence of life are the result of texts read out of context, sometimes maliciously, as shown by some publications of creationist groups and advocates of theso-called intelligent design. Darwin was a meticulous writer who kept detailed diaries and excellent records of his extensive correspondence. This allows a detailed examination of the development of his ideas, a task facilitated not only by examining the books and articles he published during his lifetime, but also by the online availability of his correspondence and notebooks, including the...