Planet Simulator

The Planet Simulator, also known as a Planetary Simulator, is a climate-controlled simulation chamber designed to study the origin of life. The device was announced by researchers at McMaster University on behalf of the Origins Institute on 4 October 2018. The simulator project begun in 2012 and was funded with $1 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario government, and McMaster University. It was built and manufactured by Angstrom Engineering Inc of Kitchener, Ontario.

The device was designed and developed by biophysicist Maikel Rheinstadter and co-principal investigators biochemist Yingfu Li and astrophysicist Ralph Pudritz for researchers to study a theory that suggests life on early Earth began in "warm little ponds" rather than in deep ocean vents nearly four billion years ago. The device can recreate conditions of the primitive Earth to see whether cellular life can be created, and then later, evolve.

In an 2018 news release, Maikel Rheinstadter stated: "We want to understand how the first living cell was formed - how the Earth moved from a chemical world to a biological world."

The Planet Simulator can mimic the environmental conditions consistent on the early Earth and other astronomical bodies, including other planets and exoplanets by controlling temperature, humidity, pressure, atmosphere and radiation levels within the simulation chamber.

Observations
According to researchers, preliminary tests with the simulator, under possible conditions of the early Earth, created protocells: organized collections of lipds which may act as precursors to living cells. According to biologist David Deamer, the device is a game changer, and the cells produced so far are "significant". The "cells are not alive, but are evolutionary steps toward a living system of molecules ... [the simulator] opens up a lot of experimental activities that were literally impossible before.” Based on initial tests with the new simulator technology, project director Rheinstadter stated that it "seems that the formation of life is probably a relatively frequent process in the universe".