Last universal common ancestor of all living things may have sprung from deep-sea vents

New York Times : Three principal domains of life have been identified on Earth: bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. Of those, bacteria and archaea are thought to have originated first. By looking at the protein-coding genes of bacteria and archaea, William Martin of Heinrich Heine University in Germany and his colleagues now say they have identified the ancient organism from which both are descended. Called Luca, the last universal common ancestor may have lived about 4 billion years ago and appears to have developed in the intensely hot deep-sea vents where magma erupts through the ocean floor. Martin’s further claim that Luca may have been very close to the origin of life itself, however, has provoked controversy because of the organism’s apparent ability to synthesize proteins, generally considered to be a fairly complex task.