News: Diamonds may have been life's best friend on primordial Earth
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:00:15 -0400 (EDT)
Diamonds may have been life's best friend on primordial Earth
Diamonds may have been life's best friend. Billions of years ago, the
surface of these gems may have provided just the right conditions to foster
the chemical reactions believed to have given rise to life on Earth,
researchers in Germany report. Their study is scheduled for the August 6
issue of ACS' Crystal Growth & Design.
In the new study, Andrei Sommer, Dan Zhu, and Hans-Joerg Fecht point out
that scientists have theorized for years that the chemical precursors of
life gradually evolved from a so-called "primordial soup" of simpler
molecules.
But the details of how these simpler amino acids molecules, the building
blocks of life, were assembled into complex polymers, remains one of
science's long-standing mysteries.
To find out, the research team studied diamonds, crystallized forms of
carbon which are older than the earliest forms of life on Earth. In a series
of laboratory experiments, the scientists showed that after treatment with
hydrogen, natural diamond forms crystalline layers of water on its surface,
essential for the development of life, and involved in electrical
conductivity.
When primitive molecules landed on the surface of these hydrogenated
diamonds in the atmosphere of early Earth, the resulting reaction may have
been sufficient enough to generate more complex organic molecules that
eventually gave rise to life, researchers say.
Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cg8005037
Source: ACS
http://www.physorg.com/news136473549.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
.
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