The group's experiment was small; each sample weighed about one-fourth of a gram, or less than the weight of a small paper clip. But if extrapolated to the huge impacts that were thought to have occurred during the Late Heavy Bombardment, the team estimated that over 100 billion metric tons of organic material could've been produced in this way. If diluted throughout early Earth's ocean, it probably wouldn't do much to stimulate the emergence of life. Instead, Matthew Pasek of Arizona University argues the molecules must be concentrated in some way if they were to form a stew suitable to give rise to the first living creatures. "One way to overcome the dilution problem would be with a crater; that would concentrate your reagents. It would make an instant cereal bowl," Pasek said. "You can sort of envision prebiotic experiments going on in hundreds of warm, shallow pools, like Darwin imagined." The finding also seems to strike a blow against the theory of panspermia -- the idea that life or the building blocks of life originated in outer space, and then were transported to Earth by comets and asteroids. The study is published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience. "Many people think you need to bring amino acids from space," Kakegawa said. "We think that important geological events here on Earth could do this." Related Links: |
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