Four and a half billion years ago, the young Earth was a hellish place—a seething chaos of meteorite impacts, volcanoes belching noxious gases, and lightning flashing through a thin, torrid atmosphere. Then, in a process that has puzzled scientists for decades, life emerged. But how? Mineralogist Robert Hazen as he journeys around the globe. From an ancient Moroccan market to the Australian Outback, he advances a startling and counterintuitive idea—that the rocks beneath our feet were not only essential to jump-starting life, but that microbial life helped give birth to hundreds of minerals we know and depend on today. It’s a theory of the co-evolution of Earth and life that is reshaping the grand-narrative of our planet’s story.

New evidence emerges on the origins of life
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-evidence-emerges-life.html

7 Theories on the Origin of Life
http://www.livescience.com/13363-7-theories-origin-life.html

The Origin of Life on Earth: Theories and Explanations
http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-origin-of-life-on-earth-theories-and-explanations.html

Can Science Explain the Origin of Life?