Editing J. B. S. Haldane (section)

=== Origin of life ===
{{further|Prebiotic soup}}

In 1929, Haldane introduced the modern concept of [[abiogenesis]] in an eight-page article entitled "The Origin of Life" in ''The Rationalist Annual'',<ref name=lazcano>{{cite journal |last1 = Lazcano |first1 = A. |title = Historical development of origins research |journal = Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology |date = 2010 |volume = 2 |issue = 11 |pages = a002089 |doi = 10.1101/cshperspect.a002089 |pmid = 20534710 |pmc = 2964185 }}</ref> describing the primitive ocean as a "vast chemical laboratory" containing a mixture of inorganic compounds – like a "hot dilute soup" in which organic compounds could have formed. Under the solar energy the [[Anoxic event|anoxic atmosphere]] containing [[carbon dioxide]], [[ammonia]], and [[water vapour]] gave rise to a variety of organic compounds, "living or half-living things". The first molecules reacted with one another to produce more complex compounds, and ultimately the cellular components. At some point a kind of "oily film" was produced that enclosed [[self-replication|self-replicating]] nucleic acids, thereby becoming the first cell. [[John Desmond Bernal|J. D. Bernal]] named the hypothesis ''biopoiesis'' or ''biopoesis'', the process of living matter spontaneously evolving from self-replicating, but lifeless molecules. Haldane further hypothesised that viruses were the intermediate entities between the prebiotic soup and the first cells. He asserted that prebiotic life would have been "in the virus stage for many millions of years before a suitable assemblage of elementary units was brought together in the first cell".<ref name=lazcano /> The idea was generally dismissed as "wild speculation".<ref>{{cite book |last = Fry |first = Iris |title = The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview |year = 2000 |publisher = Rutgers University Press |location = New Brunswick, N.J. |isbn=978-0-8135-2740-6 |pages = 65–66, 71–74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6KoRvUeUUuEC }}</ref>

[[Alexander Oparin]] had suggested a similar idea in [[Russian language|Russian]] in 1924 (published in English in 1936). The hypothesis gained some empirical support in 1953 with the classic [[Miller–Urey experiment]]. Since then, the [[primordial soup]] theory (Oparin–Haldane hypothesis) has become the foundation in the study of abiogenesis.<ref>{{cite web |last = Gordon-Smith |first = Chris |title = The Oparin–Haldane Hypothesis |url=http://www.simsoup.info/Origin_Landmarks_Oparin_Haldane.html |access-date = 18 February 2014 |url-status = live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226225142/http://www.simsoup.info/Origin_Landmarks_Oparin_Haldane.html |archive-date = 26 February 2014 |df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = The Oparin–Haldane Theory of the Origin of Life |url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/chapter26/page10.htm |publisher = Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford |access-date = 18 February 2014 |url-status = live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923202551/http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/chapter26/page10.htm |archive-date = 23 September 2015 |df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last = Lazcano |first = A. |title = Historical development of origins research |journal = Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology |year = 2010 |volume = 2 |issue = 11 |pages = a002089 |doi = 10.1101/cshperspect.a002089 |pmid = 20534710 |pmc = 2964185 }}</ref>

Although Oparin's theory became widely known only after the English version in 1936, Haldane accepted Oparin's originality and said, "I have very little doubt that Professor Oparin has the priority over me."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=Stanley L.|last2=Schopf|first2=J. William|last3=Lazcano|first3=Antonio|date=1997|title=Oparin's "Origin of Life": Sixty Years Later|journal=Journal of Molecular Evolution|volume=44|issue=4|pages=351–353|bibcode=1997JMolE..44..351M|doi=10.1007/PL00006153|pmid=9089073|s2cid=40090531}}</ref>