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The emergence of the main divisions of today's life: (1) unicellularprokaryotes, (2) unicellular eukaryotes, (3) multicellular eukaryotes, and (4)metazoans, are examples of the--still unexplained--major transitions inevolution. Regarding the origin of life, I have proposed that primordial lifefunctioned as heat engine (thermosynthesis) while thermally cycled inconvecting volcanic hot springs. Here I argue for a role of thermal gradientsabove submarine hydrothermal vents (SHV) in several major transitions. The lastdecade has witnessed the emergence of phononics, a novel discipline in physicsbased on controlled heat transport in thermal gradients. It builds thermalanalogs to electronic devices: the thermal diode, the thermal transistor, thethermal switch, the thermal amplifier, the thermal memory--the thermal computerhas been proposed. Encouraged by (1) the many similarities between microtubules(MT) and carbon nanotubes, which have a very high thermal conductivity, and (2)the recent discovery of a silk protein which also has a very high thermalconductivity, I combine and extend the mentioned ideas, and propose the generalconjecture that several major transitions of evolution were effected by thermalprocesses, with four additional partial conjectures: (1) The first organismsused heat engines during thermosynthesis in convection cells; (2) The firsteukaryotic cells used MT during thermosynthesis in the thermal gradient aboveSHV; (3) The first metazoans used transport of water or in water duringthermosynthesis above SHV under an ice-covered ocean during the GaskiersSnowball Earth; and (4) The first mammalian brain used a thermal machinerybased on thermal gradients in or across the cortex. When experimentally proventhese conjectures, which are testable by the methods of synthetic biology,would significantly enhance our understanding of life.

Major transitions in evolution linked to thermal gradients above hydrothermal vents