MEDIA
ADVISORY
SCRIPPS
PROFESSOR TO ADDRESS THE DEBATE
ABOUT HYDROTHERMAL LIFE CREATION
For decades,
scientists have debated the idea that deep sea hydrothermal vents, the
"hot springs" of the oceans, may have been the birthplace of
life on Earth.
Water that has
filtered down deep into Earth's hot crust comes to the surface,
superheated and thought to be loaded with source chemicals for life at
these hydrothermal vent locations. Furthermore, deep sea hydrothermal
vents may have been protected from meteorite bombardment that could
have made it difficult for very early life on the surface of Earth to
survive.
However, there is
more to the story, according to Gustaf Arrhenius, professor of
oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University
of California, San Diego. Arrhenius will discuss the pros and cons of
hydrothermal life creation on Thurs., April 5 at the 221st American
Chemical Society meeting in San Diego.
One of the
basic problems with hydrothermal vent life creation, he says, is an
inadequate mix of ingredients.
"There is
a common belief that as soon as you find organic compounds life is
bound to arise. But there is more needed than carbon-oxygen-hydrogen
compounds. The solutions coming out from the seafloor are devoid of
some of the most important ingredients for life-mainly nitrogen
compounds that provide the chemical letters in the genetic alphabet.
Furthermore it takes very specific enzymes and other complex molecules
to protect RNA, proteins, and their source compounds against searing
temperatures," said Arrhenius, a member of Scripps's Marine
Research Division.
"One can
contrive possible ways out of these difficulties, but to be believable
they have to be experimentally demonstrated. Most important, the
origin of life is less about fabricating the inanimate carrier
materials than about how to generate and imprint instructional
information on them."
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