primordial soup

American  

noun

Biology.

1. the seas and atmosphere as they existed on earth before the existence of life, consisting primarily of an oxygen-free gaseous mixture containing chiefly water, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.

2. a laboratory preparation containing the substances believed to have composed primordial soup, and used in experiments seeking to understand the origin of life.

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primordial soup Scientific  

/ prī-môr′dē-əl /

1. A liquid rich in organic compounds and providing favorable conditions for the emergence and growth of life forms. Oceans of primordial soup are thought to have covered the Earth during the Precambrian Eon billions of years ago. The organic compounds in the primordial soup, such as amino acids, may have been produced by reactions in the Earth's early atmosphere, which was probably rich in methane and ammonia. The complex self-replicating organic molecules that were the precursors to life on Earth may have developed in this primordial soup.

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Etymology

Origin of primordial soup

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

It has long been hypothesized that one of the building blocks for life, amino acids, could have formed during reactions in the "primordial soup" of the early, prebiotic Earth.

From Science Daily • Nov. 29, 2023

Like trying to get dry inside of a swimming pool, two amino acids would have had a hard time losing water to come together in the primordial soup of early Earth.

From Salon • Nov. 15, 2022

He, like many artists, tries to reclaim a childlike mind-set, and “this primordial soup of ecstatic, creative energy that kids have an endless amount of,” in his own practice.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2022

“Right now,” Stephenson said, “the metaverse is a primordial soup of lots of big and small companies banging into each other.”

From Washington Post • Jun. 30, 2022

There can be a blending in which different peoples flow together and change one another until they’re neither conqueror nor conquered — a new birth, rising from the primordial soup of cross-cultural intercourse.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2021