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Shaped from clay [origin of life]
Nature Magazine ^ | 03 November 2005 | Philip Ball

Posted on 11/04/2005 5:00:06 AM PST by PatrickHenry

Minerals help molecules thought to have been essential for early life to form.

A team of US scientists may have found the 'primordial womb' in which the first life on Earth was incubated.

Lynda Williams and colleagues at Arizona State University in Tempe have discovered that certain types of clay mineral convert simple carbon-based molecules to complex ones in conditions mimicking those of hot, wet hydrothermal vents (mini-volcanoes on the sea bed). Such complex molecules would have been essential components of the first cell-like systems on Earth.

Having helped such delicate molecules to form, the clays can also protect them from getting broken down in the piping hot water issuing from the vents, the researchers report in the journal Geology [Williams L. B., et al. Geology, 33. 913 - 916 (2005).].

"It's very interesting that the clays preserve them," says James Ferris, a specialist on the chemical origins of life at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. "It shows that this could be an environment where complex organic molecules can be formed."

Some like it hot

Hydrothermal vents are created when seawater that has seeped through cracks in the seafloor is heated by magma just below the surface. The water streams back out of the rock in a plume that can reach temperatures of around 400 °C.

Vents are a favourite candidate for the site where life first appeared. Their heat provides an energy source; the minerals provide nutrients; and the deep-sea setting would have protected primitive organisms from the destructive meteorite impacts that scoured the planet's surface early in its history.

But researchers have long wondered how, if early life did form in this environment, it escaped being boiled and fried by the harsh conditions.

The Arizona State team has shown that clay minerals commonly found at vents can encase organic molecules, keeping them intact.

Between the sheets

The group simulated the vent environment in the laboratory, immersing various types of clay in pressurized water at 300 °C for several weeks and looking at the fate of a simple organic compound, methanol, in this stew. They chose methanol because their earlier work had shown that the compound could be formed in a vent environment from simple gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Clays generally consist of sheets made of aluminium, silicon and oxygen atoms, which are stacked on top of one another. In some of these materials, such as the clays saponite and montmorillonite, there is room for other atoms and molecules to slip between the layers.

Spouting soup

The researchers found that the methanol in their artificial vent system was converted to various large organic molecules over six weeks or so, so long as the clay's layers were spaced widely enough to hold the compounds.

"The clay provides a safe haven for the organic molecules, essentially like a 'primordial womb'," the team reports. Eventually, changes in the clay's mineral structure caused by heat, pressure and time may cause the sheets to close up and expel the molecules inside. But they think that some of these could spout out from the clay into less hostile environments than the hottest part of the vent, creating an organic soup in which life might arise.

These findings add weight to the idea that clays were the key to the origin of life. Previous research has shown that clays act as catalysts for the formation of polymer molecules such as the precursors of proteins and DNA. They can also encourage lipid molecules to arrange themselves into cell-like compartments called vesicles.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abiogenesis; catastrophism; clay; crevolist; evolution; godsgravesglyphs; origins; shaped; shapedfromclay; thomasgold
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To: Doctor Stochastic; Pharmboy
"The existence of airborne bacteria isn't relevant to the original post."

Ah, but it is in this respect (BTW PB did a nice job with the history, with one exception noted below).

Sooner or later some Creationoid will pop up to say Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation, so the history is relevant. Some of Pasteur's flasks still exist. I have seen them at the Institute of Pasteur (about the only reason I can think of to go to France). They are still sterile after more than 100 years (sealed ones).

But Pasteur DID NOT DISPROVE SPONTANEOUS GENERATION (exception referred to above), he proved that broths became contaminated because there were microbes in air. Because it's virtually impossible to prove a negative, his experiments have no relevancy to current studies on abiogenesis. But the Creationoids will try to make it sound that way.

Who knows, by the time I post this one may already have shown its ugly head.
41 posted on 11/04/2005 7:28:14 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: Right Wing Professor
Find another red herring.

I think the Creationists have hunted that species to the brink of extinction.

42 posted on 11/04/2005 7:31:42 AM PST by RogueIsland
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To: mikeus_maximus

Well, Genesis says that man was formed from clay into which life was breathed. But I am still waiting for scientists to offer a mechanism for spontaneous generation. Until that time I must say they offer no more than Genesis does.


43 posted on 11/04/2005 7:40:01 AM PST by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Right Wing Professor

Pardon me, but are you seriously suggesting that random selection, and inherited variation, are not 2 chance events?

Okay...


44 posted on 11/04/2005 7:40:08 AM PST by mikeus_maximus (Voting for "the lesser of two evils" is still evil.)
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To: furball4paws
Sooner or later some Creationoid will pop up to say Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation...Who knows, by the time I post this one may already have shown its ugly head.

Naw, apparently they decided to go with the 'just because you found some more puzzle pieces doesn't mean the assembled puzzle isn't still a leap of faith' strategy.

45 posted on 11/04/2005 7:44:06 AM PST by Antonello
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To: mikeus_maximus
"Pardon me, but are you seriously suggesting that random selection, and inherited variation, are not 2 chance events?"

There is no such thing as *random selection*. Natural selection is the exact opposite of random. *Random selection* is a creationist talking point but it has no relation to evolution or what evolutionary biologists have proposed.
46 posted on 11/04/2005 7:49:51 AM PST by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is a grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: Antonello

Maybe, but I predict they won't be able to restrain themselves. The opportunity to use one of the greatest scientists of modern times to beat current scientific endeavors will be too great to resist, even tough the use will be a lie.


47 posted on 11/04/2005 7:50:09 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

Consider whether in the ancient atmosphere and oceans whether or not nickel carbonyl was stable enough to be a catalyst.


48 posted on 11/04/2005 7:54:10 AM PST by furball4paws (One of the last Evil Geniuses, or the first of their return.)
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To: Antonello
I wonder how this will affect the calculations of the mathematical improbability crowd.

No effect at all. They will still produce their elaborate calculations showing how impossibly improbable it is for random atoms, from random locations all over the universe, to randomly fly together and spontaneously form a DNA molecule, or a living cell, or whatever. If they knew anything about organic chemistry, they would understand that it's difficult to prevent organic molecules from forming; they've even been discovered in space. But then, if they had any exposure to actual science, they wouldn't be creationists, would they?

49 posted on 11/04/2005 8:00:28 AM PST by PatrickHenry (Reality is a harsh mistress. No rationality, no mercy)
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To: mikeus_maximus
Pardon me, but are you seriously suggesting that random selection, and inherited variation, are not 2 chance events?

Neither selection nor inheritance is random.

50 posted on 11/04/2005 8:02:06 AM PST by Right Wing Professor (If you love peace, prepare for war. If you hate violence, own a gun.)
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To: mikeus_maximus
"Pardon me, but are you seriously suggesting that random selection, and inherited variation, are not 2 chance events? "

How do you define a selection that is random and
how do you define a variation that is inherited?


Another red herring again?
Putting together two separated evolutionary processes in one is a straw-man.
51 posted on 11/04/2005 8:03:37 AM PST by MHalblaub (Tell me in four more years (No, I did not vote for Kerry))
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To: MHalblaub

Sounds more like two different questions being asked in one sentence.


52 posted on 11/04/2005 8:26:34 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: PatrickHenry
They move round,
Sunlight,
Seeing ground,
Whispers of clay,
Alternate ways
53 posted on 11/04/2005 8:29:08 AM PST by Physicist
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To: metmom
Sounds more like two different questions being asked in one sentence.

Random selection - the combining of 'random mutation' and 'natural selection'.
Inherited variation - the combining of 'inherited traits' and 'genetic variation'.

All done to create a strawman to make it appear that evolution is random.

54 posted on 11/04/2005 8:33:42 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Pharmboy

You really have no clue, do you?


55 posted on 11/04/2005 8:33:43 AM PST by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: Varda

The Biblical order of life being created on Earth is the same as the evolutionists tell us it happened, also. First, plants then, sea creatures, then birds, then land animals and man last. Hmm.


56 posted on 11/04/2005 8:34:25 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Physicist

Alternate view, surely, surely.


57 posted on 11/04/2005 8:34:58 AM PST by PatrickHenry (Reality is a harsh mistress. No rationality, no mercy)
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To: metmom
The Biblical order of life being created on Earth is the same as the evolutionists tell us it happened, also. First, plants then, sea creatures, then birds, then land animals and man last. Hmm.

well, except that land animals came before birds.

58 posted on 11/04/2005 8:37:42 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Antonello
I wonder how this will affect the calculations of the mathematical improbability crowd.

As you find out how each step works, they will add up to certainty.

The ID crowd is already anticipating this and have coined the phrase Intelligent Evolution. Denton has written a book about it, and Dembski might be coming on board.

59 posted on 11/04/2005 8:40:08 AM PST by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: js1138
The ID crowd is already anticipating this and have coined the phrase Intelligent Evolution. Denton has written a book about it, and Dembski might be coming on board.

And those poor creationists have to keep selling their souls a little at a time to keep up with 'the enemy of their enemy'. Sad.

60 posted on 11/04/2005 8:45:47 AM PST by Antonello
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