For most of history, science had no answer to the question of the origins of life. In fact, it was less than a century ago that we found initial proof of one possible way life came to be, and it turned out that the answer is soup. But not just any soup.  

Some call it primordial soup, others prebiotic soup. Basically, it consists of a mix of inorganic molecules, light, heat and electricity. In the 1920s, Alexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane (separately) hypothesized that this primordial soup was where the first biomolecules were created. Over time, they became more and more complex and eventually led to the first unicellular organisms.  

However, one thing was missing. There was no proof that it was possible to spontaneously make organic matter from inorganic molecules.