At least this new approach gives scientists the advantage of working in the real world:
Traditionally, research into the origins of life too often has been performed in silos defined by a researcher’s specific expertise. Now that Earth’s earliest environments are coming into sharper focus, thanks to concerted efforts to understand Earth’s early rock record and the insights gained from numerical simulations, a more interdisciplinary approach in origins-of-life research is becoming increasingly possible.
Dustin Trail, Jamie Elsila, Ulrich F. Müller, Timothy Lyons and Karyn L. Rogers, “Rethinking the Search for the Origins of Life” at Eos (February 4, 2022)
The good news with the interdisciplinary approach is that a greater awareness of the sheer complexity of the situation will be forced on the researchers so perhaps we will be hearing fewer “lucky strike” origin of life theories. The bad news… well, they might want to talk to chemist James Tour about that.
You may also wish to read:
Did giant mountain ranges provide nutrients in early Earth’s history? According to the new thesis, the erosion of mountains provided nutrients that were hitherto unavailable, that helped life forms get started. Sounds like a rollout, actually.
and
Researchers: Poisonous cyanide may have been a harbinger of life 4 billion years ago Note the “may have” and “could have been.” That’s where a lot of origin of life studies are, really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it is not mistaken for “the findings of science.” It’s speculation, pure and simple. It would be a great hard sci-fi novel, maybe a flick. And fun for chemistry students!