A British Nigerian couple--Ben and Angela Ihegboro--is not aware of any fair-skinned ancestors on either side of their families. Yet they gave birth to a blue-eyed, blond-haired, and fair-skinned baby girl. As the mother herself exclaimed, "What on earth happened here?"

In May 2010, researchers announced the completion of a draft sequence for the Neandertal genome. Provocative images of ape-like humans adorned newspaper and magazine articles, playing up the evolutionary story that humans descended from chimpanzee-like creatures.

Researchers have tried for decades to replicate the conditions and compounds they think were necessary for the first living cell to evolve. Their experimental failures have collectively sent the clear message that such an event is extremely unlikely or even impossible. Even some of the most basic chemicals found in all cells require already-intact cells to make and maintain more.

by Dr. Charles McCombs, Ph.D., and Brian Thomas, M.S.*

UK researchers believe they may have “broken new ground” in the ongoing quest to find out how living cells first evolved.