A new study argues that meteorites that landed in volcanic pools of water 4 billion years ago were key to jump-starting life on Earth—a theory proposed by Charles Darwin more than 140 years ago. New analysis from McMaster University in Canada and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy suggests that meteorites that landed in shallow, stagnant pools of water (or "warm little ponds") on Earth brought the organic materials necessary to create life billions of years ago. The research, published in the journal PNAS, is based on comprehensive modeling of astronomic, geological, chemical, and biological conditions on Earth as early as 4.5 billion years ago, looking at how RNA could have been formed in dry, intermediate, and wet conditions. The "warm little pond" hypothesis—a phrase taken from a 1871 letter Darwin wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker—has been studied in labs since the 1950s, when University of Chicago researchers formed amino acids by introducing electric shocks into a flask of