Radionuclide-induced defect sites in iron-bearing minerals may have accelerated the emergence of life.

Abstract:

:The emergence of life on Earth (and elsewhere) must have occurred in a milieu that is far from equilibrium, such as at alkaline hydrothermal vents that would have harboured built-in gradients in temperature, redox potential and pH along with precipitated iron-bearing minerals capable of separating these gradients, concentrating reactants and catalysing requisite protobiotic reactions. Iron-bearing minerals such as mackinawite, greenalite and fougèrite have been investigated as catalysts for protobiotic reactions, including amino acid synthesis. In the field of heterogeneous catalysis, it is well known that defect sites in the crystal structure are often the most active sites for catalysis, and mineral catalysts that have been exposed to ionizing radiation are known to exhibit increased reactivity due to radiation-induced defect sites. In this work, we (i) review the literature on the radioactive environment of the Hadean era, (ii) highlight the role of radionuclide ionizing radiation from 238U, 232Th and 40K in generating defect sites with high catalytic activity for the chemical evolution of organic molecules, and (iii) hypothesize that these processes accelerated the emergence of life.

journal_name

Interface Focus

journal_title

Interface focus

authors

Ponce A

doi

10.1098/rsfs.2019.0085

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2019-12-06 00:00:00

pages

20190085

issue

6

eissn

2042-8898

issn

2042-8901

pii

rsfs20190085

journal_volume

9

pub_type

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