Life and Its

Beginnings
Early Beliefs About the
Origin of Life
Centuries ago, people were puzzled about how
life originated on Earth. One belief that governed
their chinking is the theory of spontaneous
generation or abiogenesis. Spontaneous
generation is the idea that life originates from
nonliving matter. This idea was proposed by
Aristotle in the fourth century and held its
position as the belief on the origin of life until
the seventeenth century. People in the past
believed that flies can grow from cattle manure,
mice from wheat stored in the dark, maggots
from decaying meat, fish from mud of previously
dried lakes or lice from sweat.
 As time passed by, scientists questioned this
belief and began to explore an opposing idea,
biogenesis. Biogenesis is the belief that life
originates from preexisting life. Since then,
several experiments have been conducted to
prove these contradicting beliefs to explain how
life came about.
Redi's Experiment

In 1668, the Italian physician Francesco Redi conducted

an experiment that challenged the idea of spontaneous
generation. His experimental setup involved rejecting
spontaneous generation using maggots that arose from
decaying meat. He designed the experiment using two
sets of jars that were identical, but one jar had a gauze
covering. Redi observed that flies were attracted to both
jars. However, the flies settled only on the meat of the
open jar, since the gauze blocked the flies from hovering
onto the meat in the other jar. After several days, Redi
observed that maggots arose from eggs laid by flies on
the rotten meat but not on the meat in the covered jar.
He concluded that life arose from living matter such as
maggots from eggs of flies, and not from spontaneous
generation in the meat.
Needham's Experiment

In 1745, the English priest John Needham challenged Redi's

experiment. It was a common knowledge at that time that
boiling can kill microorganisms. Needham's experiment
tested whether or not microorganisms can appear
spontaneously after boiling. He placed a solution of boiled
mutton broth in a container and heated it. Then, he sealed
it with corks proving that it could prevent anything from
the environment to enter the flask and generate life. After
several days, Needham observed that the broth turned
cloudy due to microorganisms. He then concluded that life
in the broth was caused by spontaneous generation. In
actuality, he did not heat it long enough to kill all the
microbes in the broth.
Spallanzani’s Experiment

In 1767, the Italian scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani,

challenged Needham's experiment. Spallanzani boiled a
broth containing meat and vegetables placed in clean glass
containers. Both containers were boiled, but one setup was
not sealed, allowing air to enter the flask. Several days
later, the open container was filled with a population of
microorganisms, while the sealed container remained
sterile. He concluded that life occurred from something
that entered the unsealed flask and that it was the one
responsible for life to grow. The results were not taken
completely by the believers of abiogenesis. They claimed
that Spallanzani excluded air from his sealed flasks, which
they believed was needed for spontaneous generation to
occur.
Pasteur's Experiment

It was only in 186l through Louis Pasteur's experiment that

most scientists were convinced that spontaneous generation
does not occur. Pasteur designed an experiment to test the
idea that a vital element from air was necessary for life to
occur. He boiled sugar solution with yeast in flasks with long
neck. The flasks were left open to allow the vital element in
air to enter, but no organisms developed in the mixture. It
was because the microorganism settled on the bottom of the
curved neck of the flask and cannot reach the mixture. He
also cut the neck of the flask. Within two days, the solution
was teeming with microorganisms because airborne
microorganisms easily entered the flask. This experiment
supported the theory of biogenesis and rejected spontaneous
generation. This evidence suggests that new organisms arise
only when they are produced by existing organisms.
Current Beliefs About the
Origin of Life
At present, the idea that life comes from preexisting life is
unquestionable based on previous findings. But a question
still lingers as to how the first living organisms developed on
the planet. Since the universe has a time of origin, life was
thought to originate spontaneously from nonliving matter at
least once in the past. Because the origin event can never be
recreated, humans explored to find answers based on
existing evidence on the speculation of how the first life
forms existed.
 Divine Creation
The oldest hypothesis that life came from a divine
being is the most widely accepted belief. It is believed
that life forms and everything in the universe were
created through a supernatural power rather than
naturalistic means. This belief is called creationism.
Creationists believe that everything was made by a
supreme being in a six-day period.
 Spontaneous Origin

Some scientists believe that the first life came from a

spontaneous origin or life evolved from inanimate matter.
Before life has evolved, simple molecules combined to form
complex ones. The energy that drove these chemical processes
may come from lightning or some form of geothermal energy,
culminating in the evolution of cells from simple to
multicellular forms. Electric sparks can produce amino acids
and sugars from an atmosphere loaded with preexisting
materials like water, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen.
Scientists also tried to explain various scenarios where life
molecules might have first assembled, such as in underwater
volcanic vents, surface of clay sediments, deep in Earth’s
crust, or under frozen oceans. Another hypothesis deals with
the primordial soup that complex biological compounds were
randomly assembled by chance in an organic broth on Earth's
early surface. The famous Miller-Urey experiment suggested
that lightning may have helped trigger the creation of the key
building blocks of life on Earth during the earliest time period.
 Limpets,
Scallops Barnacles
Eggs ?
Oysters
Eggs ?

Eggs ?

Hollows
Slime Sand of Rocks
 Panspermia

The Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius popularized the

idea that life arose outside Earth and life forms were
transported from another planet to serve as seed of life
on Earth. Panspermia proposes that a meteor or cosmic
dust may have carried to Earth significant amounts of
organic molecules, which started the evolution of life.
In 1966, a meteorite that was found in Antarctica,
suggested that it had been ejected from Mars possibly
by a collision with an asteroid. The meteorite contained
presence of complex organic molecules and small
globules, which resemble those found on Earth.
Despite the influx of information, the question about
how life began on Earth remained unanswered because
of the lack of an actual account about what really
happened 4.5 billion years ago.
 Unifying
Themes About
Life
You are surrounded by living and nonliving things,
but sometimes, it is not easy to decide which ones
are living and which ones are not. Living things on
Earth share common characteristics or properties
typically not found in inanimate things. Although the
properties of life discussed below are typical of all
living organisms, some of them may not be present in
an organism at every point in its life cycle. One
example pertains to reproduction and growth,
wherein some organisms may have reached a point in
their life that they stop reproducing.
Gathering and Using
Energy
One unique characteristic of living things is the ability
to use energy and materials to ensure survival. Energy
is the ability of organisms to do work that allows them
to move. In order to perform vital activities such as
growth, movement, and reproduction, all living things
require energy. Green plants obtain energy from
sunlight to undergo photosynthesis. For humans and
animals, energy is derived from other organisms.
Energy is produced when complex organic matter such
as carbohydrates and proteins are broken down into
simple substances such as glucose and amino acids,
respectively. The process by which energy is released
by the breakdown of food substances is called cellular
respiration.
The sum of all chemical processes and energy changes
happening inside the body of an organism is referred to
as metabolism. These chemical reactions that power
organism’s life processes and provide them raw materials
are performed in sequence and regulated. These
metabolic processes include nutrient uptake, nutrient
processing, and waste elimination.
Nutrient Uptake and Processing

All living organisms need to feed in order to survive, grow,

and reproduce. The process by which organisms acquire
food is called nutrition. In plants, nutrition is performed
by absorbing water and minerals from the soil and carbon
dioxide from the air. Animals and some microorganisms
feed on organic food obtained from plants and other
animals. These acquired foods are sources of energy.
Nonliving things also absorb water and minerals, like in
the case of a filter paper or a ball of cotton. But unlike
living things, they are unable to convert the absorbed
substance to become part of themselves. In living
organisms, once the raw materials are inside the body, it
will be processed through various chemical reactions for
repair and manufacture of new body parts, reproduction,
and continue the supply of energy for essential activities.
Maintaining Internal
Balance
 Excretion

As a result of numerous chemical reactions taking place

in the cells of living things, waste products are
produced. These wastes are useless to the organism and
may even be harmful so they must be eliminated. The
process of removing wastes is called excretion. These
metabolic waste products include carbon dioxide,
water, mineral salts, and nitrogenous waste products.
Organs involved in waste elimination include the skin,
lungs, liver, kidneys, large intestine, and urinary
bladder.
 Homeostasis

Inside the body of the organism, all metabolic processes must

be coordinated and regulated. At the metabolic level, the
chemical reactions are processed to ensure efficient
coordination via enzymes. Enzymes help regulate the rate at
which these reactions occur, including the amount of
nutrients to be processed into other forms. In the organismal
level, regulatory chemicals in the form of hormones control
the functions of activities, growth, and development. The
different organ systems help control the internal environment
and maintain normal processes such as heart rate, body
temperature, and fluid environment of cells. The maintenance
of the body’s internal environment is called homeostasis.
Although different organ systems perform specialized
functions, they all work together to achieve a coordinated
goal, which is to keep the organism alive.
Responding, Adapting, and
Evolving
Certain responsive processes allow organisms to react to
changes in their surroundings in a predictable and meaningful
way. Categories of response include movement, irritability,
individual adaptation, and evolution.

Motility

Most animals can move from one place to another by walking,

lying, swimming, gliding, or jumping. Such movement is called
locomotion or motility. Corals may not appear to be moving all
the time, but rather they are attached to a substrate after
reaching adulthood compared to their juvenile stage when
they freely drift in the water. Some animals such as sponges
are sedentary, but they can move parts of their bodies. Plants
also show slow movements of body parts like in lowers
blooming, tendrils clinging for support, shoots bending toward
light, and vines creeping as they grow.
Microorganisms also move from place to place using their
locomotory organs such as cilia, flagella, or pseudopods.
Animals exhibit movement for a variety of reasons - in search
for food, process of reproduction, and response to changes in
the environment. Nonliving things also move but their
movement is dependent on external forces, such as wind or
water current. Living things move in a directed and controlled
fashion.
 Irritability

External factors or stimuli such as light, sound, temperature,

pressure, food sources, or presence of chemical substances,
affect living things. The reaction of an organism to stimuli is
called tropism or response. The ability of an organism to
respond appropriately to a stimulus is called sensitivity or
irritability. Houseflies are easily attracted to smelly foods.
Sunflowers bend their stalks and follow the sun’s direction.
A baby cries when hungry. In general, these are examples of
a stimulus—a factor in the environment that causes the
organism to respond in a predictable way.
 Individual Adaptation

For living things to survive and perform normal functions, the

ability to adjust to changes in the environment is a must. Living
things need to adapt because the environment where they live
in varies and constantly changes. Food supply can be limited,
temperature and relative humidity fluctuate, and natural
calamities occur. Individual adaptation usually happens more
slowly t than responding to a stimulus because some changes
need to occur in the organism.
For example, your body will produce more red blood cells in
response to lower oxygen levels. This is the reason why athletes
practice endurance in elevated areas with low level oxygen. This
practice enables the body to produce more oxygen, which is
delivered to the muscle cells. This gives the athletes more
advantage once they are in the lowlands. Some plants may
adjust their individual adaptation depending on the length of
the day. Lengthening of days may stimulate their flowers to
bloom earlier.
 Most people can hold their breath
underwater for a few seconds, some
for a few minutes. But a group of
people called the Bajau takes free
diving to the extreme, staying
underwater for as long as 13 minutes
at depths of around 200 feet
(National Grographic).
 Evolutionary Adaptation

Several competing theories surround the dawn of the

dinosaurs from super volcanoes, asteroid impact, and
prehistoric climate change. One theory claimed that a meteor
strike produced high quantities of sulfate particles, which
shielded Earth’s surface from receiving more sunlight. The
inability of solar energy to enter Earth’s atmosphere caused a
long cold spell, which persisted for years called the Ice Age.
Dinosaurs became extinct because they failed to adapt
themselves to these long-term changes in their environment.
Evolution refers to the changes in the characteristics of a
group of organisms (species) over time. Evolutionary
adaptation is a gradual or rapid change in body structure or
behavior to be better suited to survive in a new environment.
Reproducing and
Continuing Life
Certain life properties relate to an increase in the
size of the organism or increase in the number of
organisms. Growth, development, and reproduction
are processes that require metabolism because
they can occur with nutrient uptake and processing.
Growth and Development

All living things undergo defined stages in their life

cycle called development, which starts with fertilization
and ends in death. A farmer soaks rice seeds in water to
germinate them into seedlings, which later grow up to
be mature rice plants that produce rice grains. A duck
egg hatches into a duckling and grows up to be an egg-
laying mature duck. Bacteria split by cell division and
accumulate enough nutrients to become mature
bacterial cells. This process of growth is common to all
living things.
Growth and Development

Growth is an increase in size and volume by converting

food to become a part of body cells. Living things
exhibit growth from within the cells in a process called
intussusception. Among multicellular organisms, growth
involves more complex processes of cell differentiation
and formation of new organs or organogenesis, Growth
in large organisms involves the increase in number of
body cells. Nonliving things sometimes also grow. Have
you heard of a living stone or batong bubay? Nonliving
things grow but only by accretion, which is growth by
external addition of substances.
increase in size and volume
 Reproduction

No organism is immortal, but all living things have ways

of making sure that their species survive. This is
achieved by the ability to reproduce their own kind.
Reproduction is a process by which genetic information
is passed on from one generation to another as
organisms produce offspring. DNA is used as a physical
carrier of the transferred genetic information through
sexual reproduction. Can you identify some of your
characteristics that were passed on to you by either
your father or mother? Organisms reproduce in two
ways. In sexual reproduction, the union of sex cells
from two parents produce a unique individual of their
kind. On the other hand, asexual reproduction occurs
when an organism makes copies of itself, as commonly
found in lower life forms.
 Heredity: Unity Amidst Diversity

Animals, plants, and microorganisms carry the common genetic

material DNA, which is the molecule of life that carries the
instructions for assembling protein. Protein is responsible for
forming a variety of structures. The presence of DNA in every
living organism explains the unity of life. DNA differentiates a
living organism from a nonliving thing. The molecular structure
of DNA accounts for its ability to be used as a genetic material.

Living organisms occur in a vast diversity of forms. Around 1.8

million species of organisms are known. This diversity stems
from the differences in DNA sequences they exhibit. For
example, a human contains three billion bases of DNA, which is
almost the same number in a mice. A fruit fly has 130 million
DNA bases, while an E. coli bacterium contains only 4.5 million
DNA bases. In essence, DNA is the molecule similar to all living
organisms and responsible for differences; thus, this molecule
brings unity amidst diversity.
Living and Interacting
Organization of Life in Vertical Dimension
The scope of life on Earth is so immense, but it can be
simplified by viewing it in two dimensions. The vertical
dimension spreads the scope in terms of size scale from the
microscopic DNA inside cells to the macroscopic view of the
living sphere of the world, the biosphere. This dimension
follows a path known as the hierarchical levels of biological
organization.

Living things exhibit a high degree of organization from

molecular to cellular level. The cells of animals, plants, fungi,
and protists are made up of living protoplasm with organelles
and membranes, each performing an organized activity. Each
organelle is made up of a complex organization of organic
compounds like nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and
fats, and also of inorganic compounds like water. These
organic and inorganic compounds are basically made up of
basic elements like carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Organization of Life in Vertical Dimension

For multicellular organisms such as plants and animals, the

level of organization is more complex. Groups of cells form
tissues and different tissues form organs. Different organs
comprise an organ system with a specialized function. An
organism is made up of different organ systems with
individualized but coordinated functions.

The hierarchy builds from many molecules making up a cell,

many cells performing a set of function making up a tissue,
several kinds of tissues building an organ, several organs
performing a common function, can compose an organ
system then several organ systems function together to
make an entire organism.
Organization of Life in Vertical Dimension

A group of the same kind of organisms living in an area

is called population, while different populations
sharing the same habitat compose a community. These
communities exist in an environment affected by both
living and nonliving components, which make up an
ecosystem. AII ecosystems on Earth, whether they
support life on land, water, or lower atmosphere
compose the biosphere. All the interactions happening
in the distant biosphere down to the intricacies of the
inner cell inspire biologists’ attempt to investigate life
at its many levels, shedding light to the many
questions about your very own nature.
Organization of Life in Horizontal Dimension

The immensity of the biological realm can also be viewed

in a horizontal dimension to show the diversity and
richness of organisms inhabiting the planet. To date,
biologists have so far named and classified about 1.8
million different organisms. Estimates of about 10
million to 200 million organisms are yet to be identified.
To make sense of these enormous numbers of organisms,
biologists classified them into three groups known as the
three domains of the living world based on their similar
characteristics. Advances in the comparison of DNA
sequences led to the reclassification of organisms into
six kingdoms of life (plants, animals, protists, fungi,
archaebacteria, eubacteria), which are organized under
the three overarching domains.
 Biology
Careers in the
Twenty-First
Century
 Molecular Biologists

Marine Biologists
Studying biology is a must to survive the twenty- first
century. With the advancements in biology and
biotechnology, opportunities in the life sciences are as
diverse as biology itself. In the past, the traditional
notion of studying biology is limited to being an
academician or a medical doctor. Today, a degree in
biology opens the door to a large number of career
options. With the tremendous biological information
generated from studies of genomes of different
organisms, computer analysts, and software designers
are in demand in a field of biology called
bioinformatics. Lawyers and legal experts specializing
in patents and intellectual property rights are needed
as a result of innumerable discoveries and inventions.
Molecular biologists are hired in medicolegal and
criminal laboratories.
With the realization that technologies related to life
sciences are a major contributor to every nation’s
economy, governments are in need of public servants and
consultants knowledgeable in the biological sciences for
major government agencies. With the completion of the
human genome project, it is predicted that insurance
companies will be in need of geneticists to analyze the
genetic makeup of clients. Even different companies will
be in need of human resource managers with training in
biology. The mass media Industry needs science reporters,
writers, and editors as a result of the explosion of news
and information on the biological sciences. To meet the
increasing demand for food and natural resources, experts
and researchers in the field of agriculture and fisheries are
needed. Ecologists are needed for the preservation and
maintenance of the environment.
At present, many biologists enter the field of research, in
a wide array of biological fields. Basic research is often
associated with research centers, colleges, universities,
and government agencies, while applied research is done
and funded by private companies or industries. The
number of biology researchers who became presidents
and chief operating officers (COO) of their own start-up
companies is increasing. In most cases, these COOs
started as ordinary researchers in universities or
research centers until they decided to commercialize
their own discoveries. Genetic engineers, molecular
biochemists, pharmacologists, and immunologists are
just some examples of biologists who are in r biologists,
demand at present and in the near future.
 Twenty-First
Century
Biology: A
Bird’s-eye View
Because of the availability of modern techniques in the
study of biology, advances in the field are moving at a
tremendous rate. Noteworthy are the developments in
biotechnology and medicine. Biotechnology deals with
the application of biological concepts and systems to
make products beneficial to man. It uses the basic
molecules of life to make new products. It is currently
being used in many areas such as business, agriculture,
bioremediation, food processing, energy production,
medicine, and pharmaceuticals.

Biotechnology is not a new field as it has been used for

decades in the manufacture of beverages, cheese, bread,
and milk. In the Philippines, traditional biotechnology is
used in the production of nata de coco, bagoòng, patis,
kesong puti, local wines, and vinegars.
It applies to any technique that manipulates or mimics a
natural process to improve one’s physical and economic
well-being.

In agriculture, biotechnology is used to increase crop

yield, improve crop quality, and reduce production costs.
Genetically modified (GM) crops such as seedless
watermelons, bananas with longer shelf life, extra-large
tomatoes, and vitamin-fortified corn are now available.
Some crops are genetically engineered to fight plant
diseases. Have you heard of rice plants with built-in
insecticidal and herbicidal properties?
In the field of medicine, biotechnology is used in the
production of medicines and supplements. The most
common example is insulin that is synthetically produced
using E. coli. Transgenic animals are also products of
biotechnology. There are pigs with humanized organs to
be used for human organ transplantation.
Biotechnology has led to the birth of Dolly, the world’s
first sheep cloned from an adult somatic cell, who has
her firstborn lamb named Bonnie; Milly, the first cloned
pig; and Polly, the first transgenic lamb cloned by
nuclear transfer.
Dolly, the first
cloned sheep