A warm little pond is a hypothetical terrestrial shallow water environment on early Earth under which the origin of life could have occurred. The term was originally coined by Charles Darwin in an 1871 letter to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker.[1][2] This idea is related to later work such as the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis and the Miller–Urey experiment, which respectively provided a hypothesis for life’s origin from a primordial soup of organics[3] and a proof of concept for the mechanism by which biomolecules and their precursors may have formed.[4]
A prerequisite condition for the formation of warm little ponds on early Earth is the stable environment of exposed land.[5] While uncertain, it has been proposed based on geo-dynamical modeling that continents may have been present around the time of the origin of life; probably more certain is that higher levels of volcanism on early Earth resulted in the presence of volcanic islands on which shallow lake environments may have formed.[6]
In modern prebiotic chemistry, warm little ponds are invoked in certain abiogenesis hypotheses that propose life first developed in shallow water environments on land, such as terrestrial hotsprings or evaporative lakes, as opposed to in the ocean, such as around hydrothermal vent fields.[7] Warm little ponds are associated with a number of conditions many researchers believe may have been conducive to the origin of life, including general spatial and temporal heterogeneity.[8] Several key points of abiogenesis hypotheses associated with this idea are the ability of wet-dry cycles to concentrate reactants,[9] an energy source in the form of solar ultraviolet radiation,[10] the ability of lipids to spontaneously form vesicles in freshwater,[11] and the presence of mineral surfaces as a platform for polymerization reactions between biological precursor molecules.[12]
^Peretó, Juli; Bada, Jeffrey L.; Lazcano, Antonio (2009). "Charles Darwin and the Origin of Life". Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres. 39 (5): 395–406. doi:10.1007/s11084-009-9172-7. ISSN 0169-6149. PMC 2745620. PMID 19633921.
^Cite error: The named reference Letter no. 7471 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Oparin-1958 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Miller-1953 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Did life on Earth begin in the "little warm pond"". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
^Cite error: The named reference Korenaga-2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Russell, Michael J. (2021). "The "Water Problem"(sic), the Illusory Pond and Life's Submarine Emergence—A Review". Life. 11 (5): 429. Bibcode:2021Life...11..429R. doi:10.3390/life11050429. ISSN 2075-1729. PMC 8151828. PMID 34068713.
^Clark, Benton C.; Kolb, Vera M. (2020-11-12). "Macrobiont: Cradle for the Origin of Life and Creation of a Biosphere". Life. 10 (11): 278. Bibcode:2020Life...10..278C. doi:10.3390/life10110278. ISSN 2075-1729. PMC 7697624. PMID 33198206.
^Cite error: The named reference Foster-2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Liu-2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Black-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Ferris-1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
A warmlittlepond is a hypothetical terrestrial shallow water environment on early Earth under which the origin of life could have occurred. The term...
speculation, suggesting that the original spark of life may have begun in a "warmlittlepond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity...
hypothesized prebiotic environments resemble Charles Darwin's imagined "warmlittlepond". If life did not emerge at deep sea hydrothermal vents, rather at...
his book. Darwin suggested that life could have originated in some "warmlittlepond" containing a suitable mixture of chemical compounds. The question...
if life originated at freshwater environments similar to Darwin's warmlittlepond. The evolution of sexual reproduction may be a primordial and fundamental...
in a shallow lake rather than otherwise - perhaps somewhat like a "warmlittlepond" originally proposed by Charles Darwin. A group of scientists from...
Hooker in which he suggested the origin of life may have occurred in a "warmlittlepond". Darwinism became a movement covering a wide range of evolutionary...
researchers to study a theory that suggests life on early Earth began in "warmlittleponds" rather than in deep ocean vents nearly four billion years ago. The...
Waste stabilization ponds are used worldwide for wastewater treatment and are especially suitable for developing countries that have warm climates. They are...
A spray pond is a reservoir in which warmed water (e.g. from a power plant) is cooled before reuse by spraying the warm water with nozzles into the cooler...
fluids rich in H2S interacting with cold primordial ocean (or Darwin's "warmlittlepond") water precipitated metal sulfide particles. Oceanic hydrothermal...
The Little Lyford Pond camps is a historic logging camp located in the Maine Woods. The camps were opened in 1874, bordering the West Branch of the Pleasant...
Charge Pond is a 23-acre (93,000 m2) warm water lake in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The lake has an average depth of 6 feet (1.8 m) and a maximum depth of...
A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake...
Great Herring Pond is a 376-acre (1.5 km2) warm water pond mostly located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the southern portion extending into Bourne....
warmth over this interval, and the conventional terms of "Little Ice Age" and "Medieval Warm Period" appear to have limited utility in describing trends...
The pond loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), also known as the Dojo loach,[self-published source?] oriental weatherloach or oriental weatherfish, is a...
(October 24, 2017). "Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warmlittleponds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (43): 11327–11332...
(October 2017). "Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warmlittleponds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States...
October 2018. Johnston, Ian (2 October 2017). "Life first emerged in 'warmlittleponds' almost as old as the Earth itself – Charles Darwin's famous idea...
(2017-10-24). "Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warmlittleponds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (43): 11327–11332...
(2017-10-24). "Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warmlittleponds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (43): 11327–11332...
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