New research rejects 80-year theory of ‘primordial soup’ as the origin of life

For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a “primordial soup” of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the “soup” theory has been overturned in a pioneering article which claims it was the Earth’s chemical energy, from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which kick-started early life.