Hydrothermal vents and the origin of life

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 805-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Martin ◽  
John Baross ◽  
Deborah Kelley ◽  
Michael J. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Prospects for Life on Other Planets

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Extraterrestrial Life ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Alternative Scenarios

This book describes a hypothetical process in which populations of protocells can spontaneously assemble and begin to grow and proliferate by energy- dependent polymerization. This might seem to be just an academic question pursued by a few dozen researchers as a matter of curiosity, but in the past three decades advances in engineering have reached a point where both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) routinely send spacecraft to other planetary objects in our solar system. A major question being pursued is whether life has emerged elsewhere than on Earth. The limited funds available to support such missions require decisions to be made about target priorities that are guided by judgment calls. These in turn depend on plausible scenarios related to the origin of life on habitable planetary surfaces. We know that other planetary bodies in our solar system have had or do have conditions that would permit microbial life to exist and perhaps even to begin. By a remarkable coincidence, the two most promising objects for extraterrestrial life happen to represent the two alternative scenarios described in this book: An origin of life in conditions of hydrothermal vents or an origin in hydrothermal fields. This final chapter will explore how these alternative views can guide our judgment about where to send future space missions designed as life-detection missions. Questions to be addressed: What is meant by habitability? Which planetary bodies are plausible sites for the origin of life? How do the hypotheses described in this book relate to those sites? There is healthy public interest in how life begins and whether it exists elsewhere in our solar system or on the myriad exoplanets now known to orbit other stars. This has fueled a series of films, television programs, and science fiction novels. Most of these feature extrapolations to intelligent life but a few, such as The Andromeda Strain, explore what might happen if a pathogenic organism from space began to spread to the human population. There is a serious and sustained scientific effort—SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence—devoted to finding an answer to this question.

A symbiotic view of the origin of life at hydrothermal impact crater-lakes

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (30) ◽  
pp. 20033-20046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sankar Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Impact Crater ◽  
Crater Lakes ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth

Submarine hydrothermal vents are generally considered as the likely habitats for the origin and evolution of early life on Earth.

The Origin of Life in Alkaline Hydrothermal Vents

Astrobiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Sojo ◽  
Barry Herschy ◽  
Alexandra Whicher ◽  
Eloi Camprubí ◽  
Nick Lane
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Alkaline Hydrothermal Vents

scholarly journals Serpentinite and the dawn of life

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1580) ◽  
pp. 2857-2869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman H. Sleep ◽  
Dennis K. Bird ◽  
Emily C. Pope
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Biological Material ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Chemical Potential ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Weakly Acid ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Potential Gradients ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Chemical Potential Gradients

Submarine hydrothermal vents above serpentinite produce chemical potential gradients of aqueous and ionic hydrogen, thus providing a very attractive venue for the origin of life. This environment was most favourable before Earth's massive CO 2 atmosphere was subducted into the mantle, which occurred tens to approximately 100 Myr after the moon-forming impact; thermophile to clement conditions persisted for several million years while atmospheric pCO 2 dropped from approximately 25 bar to below 1 bar. The ocean was weakly acid (pH ∼ 6), and a large pH gradient existed for nascent life with pH 9–11 fluids venting from serpentinite on the seafloor. Total CO 2 in water was significant so the vent environment was not carbon limited. Biologically important phosphate and Fe(II) were somewhat soluble during this period, which occurred well before the earliest record of preserved surface rocks approximately 3.8 billion years ago (Ga) when photosynthetic life teemed on the Earth and the oceanic pH was the modern value of approximately 8. Serpentinite existed by 3.9 Ga, but older rocks that might retain evidence of its presence have not been found. Earth's sequesters extensive evidence of Archaean and younger subducted biological material, but has yet to be exploited for the Hadean record.

scholarly journals Origins of Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 2-7
Author(s):  
Hannah Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Rna World ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Specific Chemical ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Earth Environment ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth

When, where, and how did life on Earth originate? The origin of life problem involves multiple scientific disciplines and has spanned multiple decades. It can be summarized into three stages: (1) the origin of biological monomers, (2) the origin of biological polymers, and (3) the emergence and evolution of cells. While highly speculative, the connections between these stages are theorized by attempting to determine the geochemical situations which could have driven chemical evolution and allow for the emergence of specific chemical functions of biological systems. This review summarizes reported findings relevant to the early Earth environment and the main theories in the origin of life subject. Specific focus is placed on the metabolism first, RNA world, and compartmentalization first theories as they are involved in the origin of life paradox. The review then discusses submarine hydrothermal vents as a possible location for which life could have occurred. Understanding of information pertaining to the origin of life is important as it allows for advancement and discoveries in other fields of science and medicine. Overall, the aim of this review is to display the relevant information about the origin of life theory and highlight the importance of future research.

Hydrothermal Conditions are Conducive for the Origin of Life

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Mineral Surfaces ◽  
Hydrothermal Conditions ◽  
Initial Field ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Fields

Alexander Ivanovich Oparin was first to consider the origin of life in strictly scientific terms. Oparin published The Origin of Life in 1924, in his native Russian language, and was active in the field for the next 50 years. During my initial field work in the volcanic regions of Kamchatka, organized with Vladimir Kompanichenko, we visited the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Petropavlovsk, and I happened to see the above quote painted on a wall near the entrance. Oparin’s proposal about how life can begin was intuitive because he had no experimental evidence as a foundation, but as our party rode in helicopters up and down the peninsula from one volcanic site to the next, I began to share his intuition. The focus of this chapter concerns the properties of water in contact with mineral surfaces heated by volcanism, inspired by what we saw in Kamchatka. Four billion years ago, as the global temperature decreased following the condensation of the ocean, there came a point at which the components required for the origin of life could assemble into systems of encapsulated polymers. Two alternative hydrothermal conditions have been proposed as sites where this could have occurred: salty seawater at submarine hydrothermal vents and freshwater circulating in hydrothermal fields associated with volcanic land masses. To weigh the alternatives, this chapter considers the chemical and physical properties of hydrothermal vents and hydrothermal fields and how each could contribute to the origin of cellular life. Questions to be addressed: What are the chemical and physical properties of hydrothermal vents? How do the properties of hydrothermal fields differ from those of vents? How are these properties related to the way that organic solutes can undergo physical and chemical interactions related to the origin of life? Suppose that an organic chemist decides to synthesize a new compound that involves making an ester bond. The chemist is provided with a solution of the two reactants such as acetic acid and ethanol, and then is given a choice: should the reaction be run in an ice bath or instead heated to boiling and refluxed?

The Origin of Life

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Blair Hedges
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Early Time ◽  
Molecular Clocks ◽  
Time Period ◽  
A Cell ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Successive Generations ◽  
Life On Earth

Biological evolution begins with the origin of life, but the subject is the perhaps the most interdisciplinary of any in science. Understanding how life began on Earth requires knowledge of the astronomical, geological, and atmospheric settings. However, those settings are in turn dependent on knowing the time period when life arose, which comes from the fossil and molecular records, including molecular clocks based on genetic mutations. Interrelated with the setting is the chemistry that generates the organic molecules used to assemble the first cells and carry the genetic information to successive generations of cells. But holding the chemical reactions and products together in a cell requires a membrane, and the assembly of that involves biophysics. Thus, we have all of the fields of science coming together to understand a single event that happened about four billion years ago and initiated the Tree of Life on Earth. Because little evidence of anything has remained from this early time, there have been enormous amounts of published speculation on this subject. Narratives on how life originated can be grouped by location (surface versus submarine hydrothermal vents), temperature (cold versus hot), source of energy (heterotrophic versus autotrophic), and evolutionary order (genetics-first versus metabolism-first). I use the last dichotomy here, only because it has a long history and renewed focus in recent years. Currently there is no consensus on any one theory for the origin of life, but this is an active field that has made great strides in recent decades.

scholarly journals Conjecture and hypothesis: The importance of reality checks

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 620-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Origins Of Life ◽  
Weight Of Evidence ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Hydrothermal Fields

In origins of life research, it is important to understand the difference between conjecture and hypothesis. This commentary explores the difference and recommends alternative hypotheses as a way to advance our understanding of how life can begin on the Earth and other habitable planets. As an example of how this approach can be used, two conditions have been proposed for sites conducive to the origin of life: hydrothermal vents in salty seawater, and fresh water hydrothermal fields associated with volcanic landmasses. These are considered as alternative hypotheses and the accumulating weight of evidence for each site is described and analyzed.

scholarly journals Experimental Approaches for Testing the Hypothesis of the Emergence of Life at Submarine Alkaline Vents

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 777
Author(s):  
Thiago Altair ◽  
Luiz G. F. Borges ◽  
Douglas Galante ◽  
Hamilton Varela
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Hydrothermal Vents ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Experimental Works ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Chemical Gardens ◽  
Emergence Of Life ◽  
Alkaline Hydrothermal Vents

Since the pioneering experimental work performed by Urey and Miller around 70 years ago, several experimental works have been developed for approaching the question of the origin of life based on very few well-constructed hypotheses. In recent years, attention has been drawn to the so-called alkaline hydrothermal vents model (AHV model) for the emergence of life. Since the first works, perspectives from complexity sciences, bioenergetics and thermodynamics have been incorporated into the model. Consequently, a high number of experimental works from the model using several tools have been developed. In this review, we present the key concepts that provide a background for the AHV model and then analyze the experimental approaches that were motivated by it. Experimental tools based on hydrothermal reactors, microfluidics and chemical gardens were used for simulating the environments of early AHVs on the Hadean Earth (~4.0 Ga). In addition, it is noteworthy that several works used techniques from electrochemistry to investigate phenomena in the vent–ocean interface for early AHVs. Their results provided important parameters and details that are used for the evaluation of the plausibility of the AHV model, and for the enhancement of it.

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