Abstract
"The standard model for the origin of life posits that life is a naturally emergent property of matter in Earth-like environments and would develop rapidly on any similar body." says Christopher P. McKay, a leader of the Space Science Division at NASA;'s Ames Research Center (Icarus, 91, 93-100). This statement on life's origin, made in McKay's Urey Prize Lecture and apparently approved by his superiors, seems to represent the official position of NASA and of the federal government.