PRELIFE: Big questions with few answers

How, where, and when did life on Earth first emerge? These are three major questions to which many small, but no major, answers exist — questions that no single field of study can answer. That is why the national research consortium PRELIFE was established, a collaboration between universities and research institutes working together to find answers to these big questions.

But PRELIFE does not just conduct research: it also explicitly seeks to connect with interested people outside of science. To that end, the consortium's scientists contacted the Next Nature science museum in Eindhoven, where the exhibition "Er was eens... de Aarde" (“Once upon a time… Planet Earth”) opens Saturday, February 28th. You can take an elevator down to the Earth's core, travel billions of years into the future, and much more. The grand opening, introduced by Sanne Wallis de Vries, took place last Friday..

One mankind

In a packed hall on the ground floor of the museum, the comedian whips up her audience by getting them to do a little dance: ‘We are one Earth with one mankind that is being torn apart, so feel how you are all doing the same thing now and slowly becoming one!’ Museum director Koert van Mensvoort then explained his motives: ‘It is up to us to steer the Earth's change in the right direction. The older I get, the more optimistic I become.’ The visitor numbers at his museum certainly give cause for optimism: the counter has now passed 300,000.

Connection

Before Van Mensvoort opens the exhibition with a thunderous bang, Inge Loes ten Kate takes the floor. As a child the Utrecht astrobiologist and coordinator of PRELIFE was inspired by science, space travel and the universe. It was the era of Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels, Halley's Comet and, of course, the legendary Evoluon technology museum, which has been home to Next Nature since 2022. And now there is “Once upon a time... Planet Earth”, to which various artist collectives have also contributed. ‘We are specifically looking to connect with non-scientists,’ says Ten Kate, but, she emphasises, ‘everything in the exhibition has been checked by scientist.’

Scenarios

PRELIFE stands for Pathways, Reactions, and Environments leading to LIFE. “The origin of life is one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in science,” says Inge Loes ten Kate, member of the consortium from Utrecht University. “We do know roughly when life on Earth formed — somewhere between 4.5 and 3.5 billion years ago. Currently, two main scenarios exist: life may have begun on the ocean floor near hydrothermal vents, or near hot springs on the earliest land. To better understand which scenario is most likely, we first need to reconstruct what Earth looked like at that time, what environments existed, and which chemical reactions could have taken place there.”

Geo Wall

The project's progress can now be seen at Next Nature. The exhibition tells the story of the origins of life on Earth and how we, as humans, are part of that living system. On the Geo Wall in the museum, you can see the project's progress through news reports, interviews, and clips. Meanwhile, the festive opening is accompanied by music from singer Chagall, who controls the stage installation in her futuristic-looking suit: light, sound and song become one.

Primordial ocean

What Earth looked like is one of the things PRELIFE will investigate. One of the research projects from Utrecht University focuses on the Earth's topography at the time life emerged. When did land form in, what was then one large ocean, and how long did it remain stable? Other subprojects focus on, for example, the composition of this primordial ocean and on cell formation by molecules in water. Researchers from multiple disciplines and institutes are involved in all these projects, including teams from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

Bridging the Gap to Society

In November 2024, the consortium received approximately 7 million euros in funding from the National Science Agenda to advance this ambitious research effort. But collaboration within PRELIFE extends far beyond the scientific disciplines involved. Astronomers, biologists, physicists, and planetary scientists work side by side, but an equally important role is played by those who help translate scientific findings for a broader audience. Ten Kate explains: “One of the questions we're trying to answer is how we can involve people outside academia in the discoveries we make. Several of our PhD students will participate in visual storytelling workshops, where they will learn to present their work through short films. We are also partnering with artists, filmmakers, and writers who can bring our work to life for everyone outside of science. In addition, we want to develop an educational programme that not only explores the origins of life, but also teaches students how to approach large and complex questions that don’t yet have answers.”

Partners

The following institutions are involved in PRELIFE: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam), Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans Hogeschool), Leiden University, Marieke Baan Wetenschapscommunicatie, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Next Nature, Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Groningen, SRON, Studio HB, Delft University of Technology, University of Amsterdam, University of Twente, Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Frederic Petrignani