What is life?
In philosophy, “life” is an example of a ___ because its definition depends on human convention rather than intrinsic physical properties.
What is a non-natural kind?
The process of chaining small molecules to form macromolecules is called ___.
What is polymerization?
Photoautotrophs use ___ for energy and ___ as their carbon source.
What is light and CO2?
The Big Bang produced which light elements in its first 3 minutes?
What are hydrogen, helium, and lithium?
Oparin and Haldane proposed that life began in a “hot dilute soup” of organics in a ___ atmosphere.
What is reducing?
Needham’s gravy experiment appeared to support spontaneous generation because his ___ was insufficient.
What is boiling and sealing?
In solution near neutral pH, amino acids exist mostly as ____.
What are zwitterions?
The proton gradient across a membrane stores energy as ___.
What is the proton motive force?
The expansion-induced stretching of light is the measurement of ___.
What is red-shift (z)?
In the Miller–Urey apparatus, a key biomolecule precursor produced before condensation was ___.
What is HCN?
Pasteur’s swan-neck flask experiment demonstrated that ___ contaminate broth.
What are microbes in the air?
Life’s amino acids share the same handedness, called ____.
What is chirality (homochirality)?
Thermophiles grow best at ___ °C.
What is 45–80?
The key cooling molecule that enables star formation is ___.
What is H2?
An RNA molecule with enzymatic activity is called a ___.
What is a ribozyme?
What bonds hold hydrophobic tails together in a vesicle?
What are Van der Waals forces?
Archaeal membranes are more stable than bacterial ones because their lipids ___.
What is form a single covalently bonded monolayer?
One key membrane adaptation that psychrophiles and barophiles share is ___.
What is unsaturated fatty acids?
The apparent “Late Heavy Bombardment” peak is now thought to be ___.
What is an artifact of crater overprinting?
In the metabolism-first hypothesis, biochemistry emerged directly from ___.
What is geochemistry?
Life prefers this isotope of carbon, as it is more mobile than its other stable counterparts.
What is ¹²C?
These three universal components are shared by all cells.
What are genetic information, a membrane, and an energy system?
What is water activity?
These two kinds of data must be explained by any Moon-formation hypothesis.
What are idential isotopes and lower lunar volatiles?
What modern cellular feature do hydrothermal proton gradients represent?
What is the mitochondrial membrane?