Boswell A. Wing

Abstract An unresolved question in the origin and evolution of life is whether a continuous path from geochemical precursors to the majority of molecules in the biosphere can be reconstructed from modern-day biochemistry. Here we identified a feasible path by simulating the evolution of biosphere-scale metabolism, using only known biochemical reactions and models of primitive coenzymes.

Abstract During the 70-million-year span of the Cryogenian Snowball Earth glaciations, low ocean temperatures beneath global sea ice increased water viscosity up to fourfold. In the absence of adaptation, unicellular organisms living in this viscous environment were limited in their ability to move and acquire nutrients. We experimentally test the hypothesis that multicellularity evolved in order to overcome this viscosity-induced metabolic deficit.