Re: Ways to prove or disprove


My guess is that life arose near vents and that CO or HCN was the
original carbon source and limiting resource.

Arose meaning it was forced by the energy from? I'm guessing you
mean the vents. But many problems there - if the vent is steady
then it sterilizes more than creates.
And if it is during the bombardment phase the vent would be so
inconstant that no chemical system could build on it. If it
was after the bombardment phase, there is not enough time.
Also there is no dry phase, and no UV. There may also be a problem
about where the rare phosphorus is coming from.
Also do you really think that a regional inconstant energy source under
water is more likely to start life than the sun shining on the entire
planet?

Once life figured
out how to utilize CO2 as a carbon source,

Again the same stumbling block. Why would any chemicals benefit
from a carbon source? Would salt benefit too? You are giving direction
to life - it wants carbon. No nothing wants nothing. You can only
get anywhere if a force behind it forces it there.


the limiting resource
became the source of reducing power - probably H2S. But then
life figured out how to utilize sunlight to perform photo-assisted
oxidation of Fe++, and photons became the limiting resource.

You've set you up a two parter which is twice as hard to consider.
Wouldn't it make more sense
(and none of the above problems) if the entire process started, and
continued from the force of the sun?

Eventually Fe++ became rare, so life learned how to use photons
even more efficiently and oxidize water. Today, it is minor nutrients
like phosphate, potassium, and fixed nitrogen that are limiting.


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