Life May Have Evolved In Ice 159
Philip Bailey writes "An article in this month's Discover Magazine claims that some of the fundamental organic molecules required for the development of life could have spontaneously arisen within ice. Scientist Stanley Miller was responsible for seminal experiments in the 1950s in this area. He used sparks and a mixture of inorganic chemicals to test his theories, but turned to low temperature experiments in later years. He was able to create the constituents of RNA and proteins from a mixture of cyanide, ammonia and ice in trials lasting up to 25 years. A process known as eutectic freezing is thought to be the basis of these results: small pockets of liquid water, in which foreign molecules are concentrated enormously, increases the reaction rates, and more than compensates for temperature-related slowing."
Ice... (Score:5, Interesting)
Some say that life evolved in fire... (Score:5, Interesting)
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire
But if it had to bootstrap twice
I think I know enough of genes
To say that for mutation ice
Is also keen
And would suffice
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course it is a little bit more involved than that and this is only my vague layman understanding. Someone else can fill in all the details.
Oxygen Catastrophe? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why so few cryophiles? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ice... (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, but the atmosphere makeup has a big effect also, and the nature of the early atmosphere is still up in the air (pun). The planet itself was also warmer back then due to active volcanism from a closer moon and heat left over from formation.
Re: Why so few cryophiles? (Score:1, Interesting)
I seem to recall that nucleic acids were unlikely to form in the conditions some think were present on the early Earth (A dense CO2/N2 atmosphere with little in the way of liquid water), so if these processes occured in comet ice that could be a nice way to get around the problem of suboptimal conditions on the Earth itself. It would also be a nice fit with what you've said about the lack of evidence of cryophilic from ages past if life evolved on a hellish Earth with some of the ingredients coming from icy mountains thrown from the heavens.
-TJT