Ep 256: What was the first food?
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What was the first food?
The energy we need in order to live comes from the food we eat. Other organisms use other forms of energy. But what about the first organisms? Where did their energy come from? Along with a look at how living cells use energy, we try and figure out what was the very first food.
Here’s an article about early life, and the food they may have been eating, at least while it lasted.
Here is a short article about the DNA study that concluded that life could have started around hydrothermal vents.
We’ve been wrong about the origins of life for 90 years
Here’s a more technical paper on the same DNA study.
One step beyond a ribosome: The ancient anaerobic core
Here are two articles about life that can live on electric energy, without having to snag electrons from ingested substances.
Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy
These bacteria eat and breathe electricity
Here are several videos about the electric bacteria, and some of what we might be able to do with them.