How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers
co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth's first life began
at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. Scientists are
interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find
life on other worlds -- especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as
Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus -- we need to know what chemical
signatures to look for.