INTENSE ultraviolet light from the young sun may have spurred on the evolution of life. Until now, scientists thought UV radiation was an obstacle to life emerging, but a new theoretical study turns that notion on its head.
Life on Earth is believed to have evolved about 3.7 billion years ago, when there was no protective ozone layer surrounding the planet. This meant that the solar UV radiation reaching the Earth’s surface would have been about 100 times more intense than it is today.
The earliest life is widely thought to have been based on RNA, the chemical cousin of…
