A totally new and highly controversial theory on the origin of life on earth is set to cause a storm in the science world and has implications for the existence of life on other planets. Research by Dr Michael Russell of the Scottish Environmental Research Centre, University of Glasgow and Professor William Martin of the University of Dusseldorf claims that living systems originated from inorganic incubators - small compartments in iron sulphide rocks. This new theory radically departs from existing perceptions of how life developed and it will be published in Philosophical Transactions B, a learned journal produced by the Royal Society.

Since the 1930's, the accepted theories for the origins of cells and, therefore, the origin of life, claim that chemical reactions in the earth's most ancient atmosphere produced the building blocks of life. In essence - life first, cells second and the atmosphere playing a role.

Professor Martin and Dr Russell have long had problems with the existing hypotheses of cell evolution and their theory turns traditional views upside down. They claim that cells came first. The first cells were not living cells but inorganic ones made of iron sulphide and were formed not at the earth's surface but in total darkness at the bottom of the oceans. Life, they say, is a chemical consequence of convection currents through the earth's crust and in principle, this could happen on any wet, rocky planet.

Dr Russell explains, 'As hydrothermal fluid - rich in compounds such as hydrogen, cyanide, sulphides and carbon monoxide - emerged from the earth's crust at the ocean floor, it reacted inside the tiny metal sulphide cavities. They provided the right microenvironment for chemical reactions to take place. That kept the building blocks of life concentrated at the site where they were formed rather than diffusing away into the ocean. The iron sulphide cells, we argue, is where life began.'

One of the implications of Martin and Russells' theory is that life on other planets or some large moons in our own solar system might be much more likely than previously assumed.

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First published: 5 December 2002