Abstract
The hottest topic at this year's Ocean Sciences Meeting, held in San Diego and attended by some 2,000 scholars, was life's origin.1 Participants heard evidence that at the time life began, Earth's surface temperature ranged from 176to 194 (80 90).2 Atmospheric chemist James Kasting explained how the quantity of carbon dioxide during that era would permit little temperature variation over Earth's surface.2 In other words, no cold spots would be expected chilling news to proponents of the favored hypothesis for a naturalistic origin of life.