Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ruvan de Graaf, Yannick De Decker, Victor Sojo, Reuben Hudson
Summary: The ongoing research on the emergence of life focuses on constructing hypothetical environments to produce organic molecules. Mineral catalysts are used in experiments to facilitate the supply of organics that may have produced prebiotic building blocks. However, most studies lack rigorous materials analyses and sub-stoichiometric amounts of metals or minerals, which are necessary to demonstrate the viability of catalysis. Future work should aim to decrease catalyst loading, increase productivity, and conduct rigorous materials analyses to provide evidence of true catalysis.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bruno Mattia Bizzarri, Raffaele Saladino, Ines Delfino, Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz, Ernesto Di Mauro
Summary: Prebiotic chemistry aims to study molecular evolution events before the emergence of life on Earth or elsewhere in the cosmos, using geochemical scenarios and robust chemistry as experimental models. Recent research suggests that suitable chemical and physical conditions for life existed much earlier than previously thought, around 4.4 billion years ago. By connecting geochemistry to the chemistry of formamide through processes like serpentinization, we can understand how inorganic environments catalyze the production of organic molecules relevant to pre-genetic and pre-metabolic processes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Niels F. W. Ligterink, Kristina A. Kipfer, Salome Gruchola, Nikita J. Boeren, Peter Keresztes Schmidt, Coenraad P. de Koning, Marek Tulej, Peter Wurz, Andreas Riedo
Summary: Observations of chemical and physical peculiarities in Venus's atmosphere have raised speculations about the presence of life in its clouds. To search for signs of Venusian life, a Venus Life Finder mission with dedicated instruments is being prepared. The ORIGIN instrument, a laser desorption/laser ablation ionization mass spectrometer, is designed to detect biomolecules and analyze elemental composition. Recent studies with this instrument have investigated amino acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lipids, salts, metals, sulphur isotopes, and microbial elemental composition in Venus's atmosphere. The implementation of the ORIGIN instrument into a Venus Life Finder mission is discussed, highlighting its low weight and power consumption.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wataru Takahagi, Satoshi Okada, Yohei Matsui, Shigeaki Ono, Ken Takai, Yoshio Takahashi, Norio Kitadai
Summary: Increasing evidence suggests that early ocean hydrothermal systems were a source of ammonia, an important nitrogen species for the prebiotic synthesis of life's building blocks. Researchers have discovered that mackinawite, a common sulfide precipitate in these systems, is capable of adsorbing and accumulating ammonia, which may have played a crucial role in the origin of life.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
L. Chimiak, J. Eiler, A. Sessions, C. Blumenfeld, M. Klatte, B. M. Stoltz
Summary: Strecker synthesis is a significant mechanism in the chemistry of life's origin on Earth and other planets, creating a-amino acids from prebiotically plausible substrates. By measuring the carbon and nitrogen isotope effects, we can better understand the synthetic environments and unique signatures of abiogenic amino acids formed by Strecker synthesis.
GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA
(2022)
Article
Biology
Dominic Papineau, Kevin Devine, Bernardo Albuquerque Nogueira
Summary: The origin of life may have involved abiotic carbon redox reactions that produced lifelike patterns through chemically oscillating reactions (COR). COR are spontaneous, out-of-equilibrium, and redox reactions that decarboxylate carboxylic acids to produce CO2 and self-similar patterns. These patterns have circular concentricity, radial geometries, colour gradients, cavity structures, and branching, which are also observed in some eukaryotic lifeforms. Future research should investigate the role of halogens in biochemistry, COR in life-forms including humans, and the COR-stage of prebiotic carbon cycling on other planets like Mars.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Zoe Perrin, Nathalie Carrasco, Audrey Chatain, Lora Jovanovic, Ludovic Vettier, Nathalie Ruscassier, Guy Cernogora
Summary: This study simulated the atmospheric haze formation process of Titan in the laboratory, showing that HCN serves as an effective precursor of Titan's haze and confirming the HCN-derived polymer nature of the haze.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Christophe Malaterre, Cyrille Jeancolas, Philippe Nghe
Summary: The origin of life is a complex question that has different interpretations in science. Depending on the constraints, the nature of this question varies from seeking explanations to establishing facts.
Review
Biology
Lena Vincent, Stephanie Colon-Santos, H. James Cleaves II, David A. Baum, Sarah E. Maurer
Summary: This paper discusses principles for selecting chemical mixtures for prebiotic chemistry experiments, reviews natural environmental conditions that may have created such mixtures, and suggests reasonable guidelines for designing recipes. It explores assembled and synthesized mixtures, and addresses practical concerns such as balancing prebiotically realistic mixtures with experimental tractability. The development of standardized prebiotic recipes and a public prebiotic chemistry database are advocated to facilitate coordination among researchers and identify promising mechanisms in the origin of life.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Martin Ferus, Vojtech Adam, Giuseppe Cassone, Svatopluk Civis, Vaclav Cuba, Elias Chatzitheodoridis, Barbora Drtinova, Bertrand LeFloch, Alan Heays, Sohan Jheeta, Akos Kereszturi, Antonin Knizek, Miroslav Krus, Petr Kubelik, Helmut Lammer, Libor Lenza, Lukas Nejdl, Adam Pastorek, Lukas Petera, Paul Rimmer, Raffaele Saladino, Franz Saija, Laurenz Spross, Jiri Sponer, Judit Sponer, Zoe Todd, Marketa Vaculovicova, Kristyna Zemankova, Vladislav Chernov
Summary: The existence of life beyond Earth has always been an important scientific question. Future observations of terrestrial exoplanets provide a unique opportunity to investigate this question. By studying other planetary systems, we can understand how physical and chemical environments evolve and gain insights into the early Earth. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully study the chemistry on young exoplanets and prepare reference materials for spectroscopic observations.
EXPERIMENTAL ASTRONOMY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ben W. F. Colville, Matthew W. Powner
Summary: The debate over the structure of life's first genetic polymer continues, with the RNA world theory proposing RNA as the first nucleic acid. However, simpler nucleic acids like TNA could also have carried genetic information. The study demonstrates a high-yielding, selective prebiotic synthesis of a key component of TNA, suggesting that TNA may have coexisted with RNA during the emergence of life.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2021)
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Yasuji Sawada, Yasukazu Daigaku, Kenji Toma
Summary: Self-replicability is a unique attribute observed in all living organisms, and the question of how the life was physically initiated could be equivalent to the question of how self-replicating informative polymers were formed in the abiotic material world. It has been suggested that the present DNA and proteins world was preceded by an RNA world in which genetic information of RNA molecules was replicated by the mutual catalytic function of RNA molecules. However, the important question of how the transition occurred from a material world to the very early pre-RNA world remains unsolved both experimentally and theoretically. We present an onset model of mutually catalytic self-replicative systems formed in an assembly of polynucleotides. A quantitative expression of the critical condition for the onset of growing fluctuation towards self-replication in this model is obtained by analytical and numerical calculations.
Review
Biology
J. W. Halley
Summary: Some standard arguments are reviewed supporting deep ocean trenches as a likely location for the origin of terrestrial life. Proteomic analysis of contemporary prokaryotes and coarse-grained simulations provide evidence in favor of this hypothesis, suggesting further exploration through experiments and theoretical research.
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Oleg I. Kolodiazhnyi
Summary: Organophosphorus compounds are essential components in biological processes, with synthetic compounds also having practical applications in various fields. Recent studies have focused on phosphorus compounds isolated from natural sources, many of which exhibit interesting biological properties. The study of natural organophosphorus compounds presents potential for the development of new biologically active compounds.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Karo Michaelian
Summary: The article discusses the role of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and photochemical reaction mechanisms in the dissipative structuring, proliferation, and complexation of fundamental life molecules, as well as the analysis of these mechanisms under specific environmental conditions. An example is provided to illustrate the photochemical dissipative abiogenesis process of precursor molecules in water solvent under UVC light.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Lingyu Zhang, Kristoffer Szilas
Summary: This study presents new petrological and geochemical data for the Narssaq Ultramafic Body (NUB) in the Itsaq Gneiss Complex of SW Greenland. The results indicate that the ultramafic rocks of NUB are not mantle residues, but instead represent crustal cumulates derived from high-Mg magmas.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Rong Xu, Sarah Lambart, Oliver Nebel, Ming Li, Zhongjie Bai, Junbo Zhang, Ganglan Zhang, Jianfeng Gao, Hong Zhong, Yongsheng Liu
Summary: This study investigated the iron isotope compositions of Cenozoic basalts in Southeast China, finding significant variations related to different types of basalts and their respective sources.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
C. J. Ebinger, Miriam C. Reiss, Ian Bastow, Mary M. Karanja
Summary: The East African rift system is formed above mantle upwellings and the formation of rifts is related to lithospheric thinning and magmatic activity. The amount of splitting varies spatially and the fast axes are predominantly parallel to the orientation of the rifts. Thick lithospheric modules have less splitting and different orientations, which may indicate mantle plume flow. Splitting rotates and increases in strength as it enters the rift zones, suggesting that the anisotropy is mainly present at shallow depths.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Correction
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Ekaterina Rojas-Kolomiets, Owen Jensen, Michael Bizimis, Gene Yogodzinski, Lukas Ackerman
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Robert W. Nicklas, Igor S. Puchtel, Ethan F. Baxter
Summary: Oxygen fugacity is a fundamental parameter for understanding redox processes in igneous systems. This study compares the Fe-XANES oxybarometry method with the V-in-olivine method for evaluating fO(2) in MORB lavas. The results show that the V-in-olivine method is not applicable to samples with low MgO content, and that the majority of Archean komatiite sources have lower fO(2) than modern MORB.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Chunfei Chen, Stephen F. Foley, Sebastian Tappe, Huange Ren, Lanping Feng, Yongsheng Liu
Summary: The volatile components CO2 and H2O play a major role in mantle melting and heterogeneity. In this study, Ca isotopes were used to trace the lithological heterogeneity in alkaline magmatic rocks. The results revealed the presence of K-richterite and carbonate components as the source of alkaline magmas with low delta 44/40Ca values. These findings highlight the importance of Ca isotopes as a robust tracer of lithological variation caused by volatiles in the Earth's upper mantle.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Timothee Jautzy, Gilles Rixhon, Regis Braucher, Romain Delunel, Pierre G. Valla, Laurent Schmitt, Aster Team
Summary: Although the current approach to estimate catchment-wide denudation rates using only 10Be concentrations has made significant progress in geomorphology, this study argues for the inclusion of 26Al measurements and testing of steady-state assumptions in slow eroding, formerly glaciated landscapes. The study conducted measurements of both 10Be and 26Al in stream sediments from the Vosges Massif in France and found that elevation, slope, channel steepness, and precipitation were the primary factors controlling denudation rates. The study also revealed a significant relationship between the extent of past glaciation and the cosmogenic (un-)steadiness in the stream sediments.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Erik van der Wiel, Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen, Cedric Thieulot, Wim Spakman
Summary: Numerical models of Earth's mantle dynamics can predict the vigour and mixing of mantle flow, and the average slab sinking rates are an unexplored parameter that can provide intrinsic information on these characteristics. Through numerical experiments, it has been found that slab sinking rates are strongly correlated with mantle convection and mixing, and may explain geochemical observations from hotspot volcanoes.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2024)
