Evolution of Life

Synopsis

4 billion years ago, asteroids, large blocks of ice and rocks racing through the solar system combined into planets.
Our heroine Piccolina, a water molecule inside a frozen meteorite, lands on our planet.  As ice melts, H2O molecules like Piccolina become liquid water, the elixir of life.
In water, Piccolina meets molecules of all sorts, linking, combining and getting more and more complex. Piccolina and complex molecules get trapped inside membrane made of fatty molecules. Thus evolves the first cell, the beginning of life...

Official selection at "SCINEMA 2009", "Pariscience 2009", "Science Film Festival Thailand 2009", "A nous de voir 2009" and "Vedere la Scienza Festival 2010".

Scientific expert

Marie-Christine Maurel

Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6, France
Biology and Biochemistry of Evolution

« Understanding evolution naturally raises questions about the origin of life. Recent discoveries give us hints about the nature of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) and how this primordial cell may have emerged in an exciting molecular scenario.»