If you've ever lived in a dorm, undoubtedly you have come into contact with some of the simplest life forms: bacteria and mold, in particular.
These resilient cells seem to appear out of nowhere in your average storage container, and now a group of scientists at Cuza University in Romania think that may be precisely the case.
The most popular theory in cellular evolution is that cells were first formed after a series of complex chemical processes across the span of millions of years.
Molecules are thought to have organized themselves first as simple structures and then amino acids.
But Mircea Sanduloviciu and his associates have another idea: The first cells arose from gaseous plasma in the lightning storms of our forming planet.
Plasma is a form of matter, like solids, liquids and gases. When high amounts of energy are added to a gas, it becomes plasma. Plasma, which contains ions and other dissociated molecules, is thought to have been the first form of matter. Though it requires a large amount of energy and a high temperature to form, plasma can survive at the lower temperatures where normal biochemical reactions occur.
Sanduloviciu and his team simulated electrical storms in the laboratory, which were rampant on Earth before life began. It is in these storms that ionized gaseous plasmas readily are formed. In those conditions, the physicists created gaseous plasma globs in the laboratory that function like cells - they communicate, grow and replicate - all without the control of inherited DNA material.
The creation of these "cells" is an initial step in radically redefining life as we know it, life that exists without the complexity of a genome and begins in fractions of seconds.
According to a report in The New Scientist, two electrodes were inserted into a chamber with a low-temperature plasma of argon. A high concentration of ions and electrons formed around the positively charged electrode, and tiny spheres were spontaneously formed. Those spheres contained nuclei made of gas atoms and had a double-layered boundary as living cells usually do. Their size and lifespan were based upon the amount of energy in the initial lightning strike, from as small as a few micrometers to as large as 3 centimeters in diameter.
Each glob was able to split into two daughter "cells," similar to bacteria. They also could take material from the environment and essentially grow by adding to their layers. They could communicate by releasing energy to atoms in other spheres and causing them to vibrate, fulfilling all the traditional characteristics of a cell.
The existence of this cell-like plasma increases the chance that life, though perhaps not as we commonly know it, exists on other planets. There are electrical storms of great intensity on our own sun, though its temperature far exceeds that at which biochemical life is known to be able to exist.
While we can't easily create plasma in our own refrigerators, let's not let the Romanians have all the fun.
Research that explores the basic foundation of life could lead to the creation of other sorts of DNA-free organisms, paving the way for creation of more complex organisms. Some may say that by doing this we are playing God, but if we are made in His image, there is that much more reason to better understand ourselves and our world.
Audra Baker is a journalism and biology senior. Reach her at audra.baker@asu.edu.
