How Did Life Originate on Earth? From Forgotten Experiments to New Insights

How chemistry turned into biology—that is, how life originated—remains one of science's biggest open questions. I will start by discussing major hypotheses and some pioneering experimental work on how life might have originated on Earth. I will then revisit the remarkable, yet seemingly discredited and subsequently forgotten, experiments from the 1950s on "jeewanu" -- particles of life -- by Krishna Bahadur and S. Ranganayaki, a scientist couple at the University of Allahabad. Building on this forgotten work, my team has launched an original research program that has yielded many new insights and possibilities. I'll conclude with the implications of this discovery and the next steps toward understanding life and its origins.