Apr. 4, 2013 — Researchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life. This new study shows how a chemical, similar to one now found in all living cells and vital for generating the energy that makes something alive, could have been created when meteorites containing phosphorus minerals landed in hot, acidic pools of liquids around volcanoes, which were likely to have been common across the early Earth. "The mystery of how living organisms sprung out of lifeless rock has long puzzled scientists, but we think that the unusual phosphorus chemicals we found could be a precursor to the batteries that now power all life on Earth. But the fact that it developed simply, in conditions similar to the early Earth, suggests this could be the missing link between geology and biology," said Dr Terry Kee, from the University's School of Chemistry, who led the research. All life on Earth is powered by a process called chemiosmosis, where the chemical adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the rechargeable chemical 'battery' for life, is both broken down and re-formed during respiration to release energy used to drive the reactions of life, or metabolism. The complex enzymes required for both the creation and break down of ATP are unlikely to have existed on Earth during the period when life first developed. This led scientists to look for a more basic chemical with similar properties to ATP, but that does not require enzymes to transfer energy. Phosphorus is the key element in ATP, and other fundamental building blocks of life like DNA, but the form it commonly takes on Earth, phosphorus (V), is largely insoluble in water and has a low chemical reactivity. The early Earth, however, was regularly bombarded by meteorites and interstellar dust rich in exotic minerals, including the far more reactive form of phosphorus, the iron-nickel-phosphorus mineral schreibersite. The scientists simulated the impact of such a meteorite with the hot, volcanically-active, early Earth by placing samples of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite, an iron meteorite which fell in Siberia in 1947, in acid taken from the Hveradalur geothermal area in Iceland. The rock was left to react with the acidic fluid in test tubes incubated by the surrounding hot spring for four days, followed by a further 30 days at room temperature. In their analysis of the resulting solution the scientists found the compound pyrophosphite, a molecular 'cousin' of pyrophosphate -- the part of ATP responsible for energy transfer. The scientists believe this compound could have acted as an earlier form of ATP in what they have dubbed 'chemical life'. "Chemical life would have been the intermediary step between inorganic rock and the very first living biological cell. You could think of chemical life as a machine -a robot, for example, is capable of moving and reacting to surroundings, but it is not alive. With the aid of these primitive batteries, chemicals became organised in such a way as to be capable of more complex behaviour and would have eventually developed into the living biological structures we see today," said Dr Terry Kee. The team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL-Caltech) working on the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August last year, has recently reported the presence of phosphorus on the Red Planet. "If Curiosity has found phosphorus in one of the forms we produced in Iceland, this may indicate that conditions on Mars were at one point suitable for the development of life in much the same way we now believe it developed on Earth," added Dr Kee. The team at Leeds are now working with colleagues at JPL-Caltech to understand how these early batteries and the 'chemical life' they became part of might have developed into biological life. As part of this work they will be using facilities in the University of Leeds' Faculty of Engineering, currently used to test new fuel cells, to build a 'geological fuel cell' using minerals and gases common on the early Earth. Researchers will apply different chemicals to its surface and monitor the reactions take place and the chemical products which develop. The team also hope to travel to Disko Island in Greenland which is home to the Earth's only naturally-occurring source of schreibersite, the mineral found in the Sikhote-Alin meteorite. Here, they hope to repeat their experiments and show that the same chemicals develop in an entirely Earth-originated setting. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130404122234.htm
It has already been done many years ago. Here is the information as to how they did it. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The Miller-Urey experiment[1] (or Urey–Miller experiment)[2] was an experiment that simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested for the occurrence of chemical origins of life. Specifically, the experiment tested Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's hypothesis that conditions on the primitive Earth favored chemical reactions that synthesized organic compounds from inorganic precursors. Considered to be the classic experiment on the origin of life, it was conducted in 1952[3] by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey at the University of Chicago and published the following year.[4][5][6] After Miller's death in 2007, scientists examining sealed vials preserved from the original experiments were able to show that there were actually well over 20 different amino acids produced in Miller's original experiments. That is considerably more than what Miller originally reported, and more than the 20 that naturally occur in life.[7] Moreover, some evidence suggests that Earth's original atmosphere might have had a different composition from the gas used in the Miller–Urey experiment. There is abundant evidence of major volcanic eruptions 4 billion years ago, which would have released carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere. Experiments using these gases in addition to the ones in the original Miller–Urey experiment have produced more diverse molecules. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...6IDQCQ&usg=AFQjCNG1SzSPKLL5arx6KGykvTKmCWIliw
I think they forgot ribise , which is important in forming of DNA . Things are not so simple . Remember NASA a few years ago come up Arsenic substitute for Phosphate
The energy within organic phosphate compounds come from the phosphate because it is a strong oxidant. Reduced carbon compounds like glucose, are also energy rich, but derive their energy from their ability to reduce compounds. They ultimately give electrons to oxygen, for example, as a terminal electron acceptor. The result is the formation of water. Phosphate oxidizes one step further and uses water or -OH groups as the giver of electrons. Phosphate is about increasing the bandwidth between reduction and the oxidation beyond O2 and water. If you look at phosphate or PO4-3, the central phosphorus atom reaches an oxidation state of +5. The four oxygen tag team the central phosphate and share its electrons exposing the +5. The Phosphorus atom can assume a number of oxidation states +5, +4. +3. +2. +1. When the phosphate sees an OH- group, on an enzyme, it can use these electrons to get to +4, temporarily. But phosphorus but can't seem to stay, because water will return phosphorus to +5. The organic groups attached to the phosphate, such as in DNA, will release electron density toward the powerful central phosphorus atom oxidizer. The result is more like 4.5+ charge (analogy) thereby stabilizing the phosphate, so DNA remains more stable. But since it is between +5 and +4, the DNA can be cut near the phosphate and reformed such as during unpacking to remove steric hindrance. There is one more consideration, which is the bread and butter of ATP. Life occurs within water and water will hydrogen bond with the surfaces of enzymes, since these surfaces face-out hydrophilic. When water hydrogen bonds with the enzyme and itself the extended network of hydrogen bonding become cooperative. What that means is as more bonds form all the bonds become stronger. They cooperate so the team becomes more than the sum of the parts, with breaking any single bond tougher since it represents the team. But if you break that first hydrogen bond of the cooperative they all get weaker. The ATP acts like a bolt cutter for the cooperative hydrogen bonding. Picture a high tension cable under tension. If we cut it, it will snap and rebound. In the case of water, the ATP bolt cutter will generate a surge of high water entropy as the cooperative net rebounds and disperses. There is a lot of free energy within this water entropy, which can be used by the enzyme to help it change shape. You need the powerful oxidizing property of phosphate; to chemically absorb water so it can bolt cut the high tension cooperative.
In science, how many "could's" and "may's" and other similar words/phrases does it take to equal an "is"? Just looking at the first part .... Researchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life. This new study shows how a chemical, similar to one now found in all living cells and vital for generating the energy that makes something alive, could have been created when meteorites containing phosphorus minerals landed in hot, acidic pools of liquids around volcanoes, which were likely to have been common across the early Earth.
Some Middle East Researchers claim they have worked out which is the most important part of the process. They say it is the presence of Aluminium Lanthanum Hydride. I wish I'd thought of this four days ago.
From the beginning of life, water is present with the capacity to do it all the things it does in a modern cell as a reflection of all the organics of life. The most important thing water brings to the table is the fifth force of nature, which is the entropic force. This is a force generated by entropy, instead of the EM force of chemical bonding. This can be demonstrated with osmosis. In osmosis, an increase in the entropy of water (diffuses through a membrane to increase the entropy) will generate a directed force; osmotic pressure =force/area. The result is micro-randomness becoming a macro-order via the entropic force. I can run a power cycle with this directed force generated by randomness of water. In the case of ATP and enzymes, the water initially stabilizes, signals, structures and partitions the enzyme via cooperative hydrogen bonding; unique fold. The ATP, uses the water into a reactant, increasing the local water entropy; bolt cutter rebound. The entropy increase of the water, then muscles the enzyme into a repeatable new shape, million of times. The enzyme does not change shape randomly, but is the same over and over again due to the entropic force, until it bursts. Liquid water is a very crowded place, especially because water is self sticking and sticky to other things due to hydrogen bonding. The unusually high boiling point of this small water molecule is a reflection of this secondary bonding strength. For anything to move within liquid water, including molecules, ions and enzymes, sticky water have to be displaced, which takes energy. Picture being at a rock concert, near the stage, at the same time the audience rushes the stage. You end up in tight quarters pressed against the stage, unable to move freely. If you have to go from the left side of the stage to the right, it will take a lot of work pushing through the crowd that does not wish to move. This could be made easier, if a seam opens up as a group of people start to migrate and you get to follow their wake. Then it does not take much energy.
