1. What six elements are most prevalent in living organisms?
2. Were these elements present in the infant solar system?
3. What circumstances may have fostered the development of chains of amino acids and nucleotides?
4. What are the characteristics of the ancestors of living cells, what could they “do”?
5. Why is water important to life?
6. What are the “true” hallmarks of life?
7. What molecular evidence do scientists have that all life is at least distantly related and has a common ancestor?
8. What conditions exist on the present day earth that make the spontaneous generation of life unlikely?
9. What conditions are thought to have existed on primitive earth that favored the origin of life?