Iron-Sulfur World Theory


Iron–sulfur world theory

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:


The iron-sulfur world theory is a theory of the origin of life, developed by Günter Wächtershäuser, a Munich chemist and patent lawyer, that processes the forms of iron and sulfur. Wächtershäuser argues for the thesis that an early form of metabolism occurs before genes.

Here, metabolism refers to a chain of chemical reactions that will produce energy to be operated by other processes. According to this idea, once the primitive metabolic chain was created, it began to form more complex systems.


Iron-Sulfur world – Bio-energetics of Life Processes – Prof. Mainak Das

Week 01 – Lecture 03


One of the key ideas of the theory is that this early chemistry of life did not occur in dense solution in the oceans, but on mineral surfaces located next to deep hydrothermal ponds (example: iron pyrites).


What Is The Metabolism-First Hypothesis For The Origin Of life?

This animation is published in coordination with the new Nature article: A plausible metal-free ancestral analogue of the Krebs cycle composed entirely of α-ketoacids https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-00560-7


Science Journalist

Science atlas, our goal is to spark the curiosity that exists in all of us. We invite readers to visit us daily, explore topics of interest, and gain new perspectives along the way.

View all posts

Add comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *