[IAmYourDensity]

> But that the first cell just randomly happened in the primordial soup - that looks extremely unlikely,

I don't understand this. Aren't cells just spherical structures that would form naturally from hydrophobic molecules suspended in water/tide pools? That seems likely to me, but I have no background in chemistry/biology.

Nick Lane argues in "The Vital Question" [0] that simple cell membranes are not enough for complex life and complex membranes may have evolved in matrixes around hydrothermal vents.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vital_Question

[miramba]

No! A cell is an incredibly complex machine and we have just begun to understand how it works! Admittedly, the wikipedia page for cells don‘t transfer that fact well (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28biology%29). I can‘t explain it all here, but yes, cells are essentially made of proteins and other organic compounds which have been found on that asteroid (and other asteroids before). But that is similar to the fact that a human is made of 14 chemical elements - it’s not telling you at all how the machine came to be and works. The Miller-Urey Experiment showed that those organic compounds could be created from anorganic material, which reversed the old belief that only organic matter can create organic compounds. But from there to a working, functional cell is still a long, looong way. Like, an aminoacid/ protein is a nail (and a plate, and a valve, and a million other components), a cell is a spaceship. That can harvest it’s environment and build new spaceships. Every living thing consists of cells, and we all go back to one first cell, that‘s the obvious conclusion when studying the system of life. But that first cell must have been incredibly complex, alone for the fact that it could take surrounding matter and build a new cell out of that.

[pfdietz]

There is an enormous amount of functional structure in even the simplest known cell. Cut down as much as possible, it's still billions of atoms.