Darwin imagined that life may have begun in a “warm little pond.” Leftover particles from the evolution of stars formed an interstellar stew, capable of being zapped into animation. In the lab of SFI External Professor Juan Pérez-Mercader (Harvard University), researchers put the “pond” in a test tube, energized it, and witnessed the spontaneous creation and reproduction of abiotic micrometer structures that make their own parts.
Even though these structures were biochemistry-free, Pérez-Mercader and his colleagues note that reproduction is an essential prerequisite for life, and the behavior they observed could be the essential step that preceded natural life on Earth. The team published their results in PNAS in May.
Using a homogenous solution of simple, carbon-based compounds, the energy from green lights synthesized amphiphiles — large molecules with hydrophilic components that attract water and hydrophobic components that repel it. These began to self-assemble into sac-like structures.
Within the sacs, amphiphiles continued to form, more quickly than in the solution outside. Eventually, an imbalance formed between amphiphiles inside and outside the membrane, which spurred the ejection of “spores” that led to slightly different “offspring.”
Read the paper "Self-reproduction as an autonomous process of growth and reorganization in fully abiotic, artificial and synthetic cells" in PNAS (May 27, 2025). DOI: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412514122
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Read the press release from Harvard University (July 22, 2025)
Read "Self-reproducing synthetic cells" in Chemical & Engineering News (May 27, 2025)