What is the most accepted hypothesis about the origin of life on earth? How does it compare to the other main hypotheses?
The heterotrophic hypothesis is the strongest and most accepted hypothesis about the origin of life. The spontaneous generation hypothesis has been excluded by the experiments of Pasteur. The panspermia hypothesis is not yet completely refuted but it is not well-accepted since it would be necessary to explain how living beings could survive long space journeys under conditions of extreme temperatures as well as to clarify the manner by which they would resist the high temperatures faced when entering the earth's atmosphere. The autotrophic hypothesis is weakened if one takes into account that the production of organic material from inorganic substances is a highly complex process requiring diversified enzymatic systems and that the existence of complex metabolic reactions on the primitive earth were not probable.
