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Letter: Symbiosis makes life's origins even more complex (2)

Published 24 June 2026

From Ian Payne, London, UK

Hooper’s article suggests that life may be similar wherever it arises. Other pieces in New Scientist have concluded that there was a single origin of life, and therefore a last universal common ancestor (LUCA). If life is similar wherever and whenever it arises, then perhaps there were several indistinguishable origins of life at different times and places on Earth, and LUCA may not have existed after all.

Issue no. 3601 published 27 June 2026

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