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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Evidence For Reactive Reduced Phosphorus Species In The Early Archean Ocean, Matthew A. Pasek, Jelte P. Hammeijer, Roger Buick, Maheen Gull, Zachary D. Atlas
Evidence For Reactive Reduced Phosphorus Species In The Early Archean Ocean, Matthew A. Pasek, Jelte P. Hammeijer, Roger Buick, Maheen Gull, Zachary D. Atlas
School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications
It has been hypothesized that before the emergence of modern DNA–RNA–protein life, biology evolved from an “RNA world.” However, synthesizing RNA and other organophosphates under plausible early Earth conditions has proved difficult, with the incorporation of phosphorus (P) causing a particular problem because phosphate, where most environmental P resides, is relatively insoluble and unreactive. Recently, it has been proposed that during the Hadean–Archean heavy bombardment by extraterrestrial impactors, meteorites would have provided reactive P in the form of the iron–nickel phosphide mineral schreibersite. This reacts in water, releasing soluble and reactive reduced P species, such as phosphite, that could then …
Modeling Potential Chemical Environments: Implications For Astrobiology, Brian Craig Szenay
Modeling Potential Chemical Environments: Implications For Astrobiology, Brian Craig Szenay
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Modeling chemical environments is an important step to understanding the diversity of prebiotic systems that may have formed on the early earth or potentially can occur on other worlds. By using the modern Earth as a test case, these models predict scenarios with systems more conducive to the formation of the organic molecules that are important to life. Here we use the equilibrium thermodynamic modeling program HSC Chem to investigate prebiotic environments. This program uses the raw material that the user inputs into the system in order to calculate the change in amounts of chemical species forming as a function …