From Scientific American

 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-life-arose-on-earth-and-how-a-singularity-might-bring-it-down/

 

By George Musser on September 23, 2011

 

 

It didn't take long for the recent Foundational Questions Institute conference on the nature of time to delve into the purpose of life. "The purpose of life," meeting co-organizer and Caltech cosmologist Sean Carroll said in his opening remarks, "is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide." Well, there you have it. Carroll is one of the most reflective scientists I know and would never claim to reduce all of human existence to molecular disequilibrium. Still, it's nice to know your place in the grand scheme of things. The FQXi meeting had much to say about where we came from—and where we're headed.

Last year, Carroll blogged the backstory of where his purpose-of-life line came from. He had bumped into Mike Russell of JPL, an expert on the origin of life, on an airplane and got to chatting about the role that living things play in the geochemical cycles of our planet. Russell was on hand at the FQXi conference, too, and elaborated on his engrossing thesis tracing our descent to inorganic chemical reactions.

In Russell's picture, the primeval Earth looked uncannily like a giant bacterium. At the seafloor, in spots like the Lost City hydrothermal vents, the chemically reduced interior met the oxidized exterior, creating a state of chemical disequilibrium. Hydrogen bubbling up from the interior sought to combine with carbon dioxide dissolved from the atmosphere to form methane, but this reaction has a bottleneck because intermediate stages such as formaldehyde require an input of energy (see this helpful graph). A geochemical reaction known as serpentinization can push through the bottleneck, using metals such as iron as catalysts, but biological reactions are more efficient, and Russell mapped out a series of steps whereby serpentinization would evolve into membrane-encased cells.

 

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We have mentioned Sean Carroll quite a few times on this site. Carroll is at the forefront of explaining “things” of the Universe:

 

Sean Carroll:

I'm interested in how the world works at the deepest levels, which leads me to do research in physics and philosophy. My current interests include foundational questions in quantum mechanics, spacetime, statistical mechanics, complexity, and cosmology, with occasional dabblings elsewhere. My most recent book, Something Deeply Hidden, is about quantum mechanics, Many Worlds, and the emergence of spacetime. I host a podcast, Mindscape, where I interview smart people about all sorts of interesting ideas.

My official titles are Research Professor of Physics at Caltech and Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. I live in Los Angeles with my wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette, and two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

 

Gus watches Sean but does not like cats much — mostly because (even the most adorable ones) cats are sneaky, kill birds in my garden and poop in the veggie patch… Back to real life:

 

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ORIGIN OF LIFE:

 

Abstract 

 

Michael Russell

• California Institute of Technology

 

 

Isik Kanik

• California Institute of Technology

 

 

 

A theory of how life emerges is couched in the context of the gravitational differentiation of terraqueous worlds massive enough to have held a carbon dioxide and nitrogen atmosphere. 

 

On the early Earth the differentiation to the various spheres—core, mantle, asthenosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere—was largely a response to radiogenic and gravitational heat production in the interior. 

 

An effect of these density differentiations was to gather electrons in the core in native iron (Fe0 with its full compliment). However, early core formation still left the upper mantle relatively electron-rich (in FeII-bearing minerals), compared to the exhaling and accreting oxidized volatiles (H2O, CO2, N2, NO, SO2, P4O10) that composed the early hydrosphere and atmosphere. 

 

The atoms comprising these oxidized molecules are forced to share electrons covalently, rendering some of them potential ̳electron acceptors‘. Hydrothermal H2 acted as the carrier gas of electrons derived from the reduced iron in the crust. Reductions (hydrogenations), particularly of marine CO2, NO (or NO3 -) and FeIII at alkaline submarine hydrothermal springs, led to the emergence of metabolic pathways, first in inorganic compartments, then in prokaryotic cells that multiplied exponentially to produce the early biosphere, the last sphere to differentiate (cf., Takai et al., 2004). 

 

At the larger scale of the solar system the volatiles differentiate from the sun outwards in response to the solar wind, radiation, the decline in the gravity field and condensation and sublimation. But again, the same tensions between the CO2-bearing waters and hydrothermal H2 would tend to drive life into being on other rocky terraqueous globes like Mars and perhaps on Europa and Enceladus (Russell and Hall, 1999; Vance et al., 2007). 

 

Without this geochemical potential there would and will be no life, for life is not the convergence of a myriad of organic molecules but a resolution of redox and pH tensions in an aqueous environment whereby simple organic molecules are first synthesized from CO2 and other minor entities before being polymerized, interacted with and even hydrolyzed. 

 

The unambiguous effluents from early cells would be acetate or acetic acid and its derivatives. Beyond the solar system the same logic applies. Only those extra solar planets with rocky interiors and hosting surface or ground waters containing dissolved carbon dioxide (dosed with nitric oxide) will have an accompanying biosphere, one that would be forced to emerge to resolve these same geochemical and electrochemical tensions.

 

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Then the differentiation of lifeforms, evolving across 4 billion years, leads to species, natural exclusive appearance ("beauty"), defensive characteristics, choice of food (preys — proteins) and reproductive abilities — dinosaurs and butterflies included.

 

 

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Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001[1]) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the shergottite–nakhlite–chassignite (SNC) group of meteorites, ALH84001 is thought to have originated on Mars. However, it does not fit into any of the previously discovered SNC groups. Its mass upon discovery was 1.93 kilograms (4.3 lb).

In 1996, a group of scientists found evidence of microscopic fossils of bacteria in the meteorite, suggesting that these organisms also originated on Mars. The claims immediately made headlines worldwide, culminating in then-U.S. president Bill Clinton giving a speech about the potential discovery.[2] These claims were controversial from the beginning, and the wider scientific community ultimately rejected the hypothesis once all the unusual features in the meteorite had been explained without requiring life to be present. Despite there being no convincing evidence of Martian life, the initial paper and the enormous scientific and public attention caused by it are considered turning points in the history of the developing science of astrobiology.[3]

 

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hills_84001

 

 

Organic synthesis associated with serpentinization and carbonation on early Mars

 

SCIENCE • 13 Jan 2022 • Vol 375, Issue 6577

 

Abiotic formation of organic molecules

 

Mars rovers have found complex organic molecules in the ancient rocks exposed on the planet’s surface and methane in the modern atmosphere. It is unclear what processes produced these organics, with proposals including both biotic and abiotic sources. Steele et al. analyzed the nanoscale mineralogy of the Mars meteorite ALH 84001 and found evidence of organic synthesis driven by serpentinization and carbonation reactions that occurred during the aqueous alteration of basalt rock by hydrothermal fluids. The results demonstrate that abiotic production of organic molecules operated on Mars 4 billion years ago. —KTS AbstractWater-rock interactions are relevant to planetary habitability, influencing mineralogical diversity and the production of organic molecules. We examine carbonates and silicates in the martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001), using colocated nanoscale analyses, to characterize the nature of water-rock reactions on early Mars. We find complex refractory organic material associated with mineral assemblages that formed by mineral carbonation and serpentinization reactions. The organic molecules are colocated with nanophase magnetite; both formed in situ during water-rock interactions on Mars. Two potentially distinct mechanisms of abiotic organic synthesis operated on early Mars during the late Noachian period (3.9 to 4.1 billion years ago).   READ FROM TOP.  FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW. PLEASE.

 

A team of researchers from Osnabruck University in Germany claim to have observed a behavior in chimpanzees that was previously thought to be specific to humans: giving each other medical assistance. The findings were reported in the journal Current Biology on Monday.

Many species of animals are known to engage in self-medication, by doing things like eating medicinal plants when they become ill. However, treating others’ ailments was long thought to be something that only we humans do. The group of researchers, who study a colony of chimpanzees at the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project in Gabon’s Loango National Park, say our species is not that unique after all.

The apes demonstrated on many occasions the same approach to fresh open injuries. They would catch an insect and rub it into the wound before removing the bug. The team saw over 20 such cases over a period of more than one year between 2019 and 2021.

In four of those sessions, the apes cooperated to apply the treatment. Two of the instances involved an adult female named Suzee, who used insects on her adolescent son’s injury.

 

In this clip, filmed by @alessandra_masc, you see the adult #chimpanzee#female Suzee, catching and applying an #insectto the open #wound on the foot of her adolescent #son, Sia. pic.twitter.com/JTLryXw0ac

— Ozougachimps (@ozougachimps) February 7, 2022

 

In another case, a female was grooming around an injury on the calf of another chimp named Littlegrey. She caught an insect and handed it over to the male, who rubbed it on the wound surface. In a fourth case, an adult male applied an insect to another injury that Littlegrey had.

Paper co-author Simone Pika, who is a cognitive biologist, believes the observations clearly point to chimpanzees having prosocial behaviors, meaning they exert efforts that benefit others but not themselves.

“For me, being interested in the cognitive skills of chimpanzees, it was particularly striking to witness that individuals not only treat their own but also the wounds of other non-related individuals,” she said.

 

We observed that individuals of our #Rekambo#chimpanzeecommunity catch and apply flying #insects onto their own open #wounds. Filmed by @alessandra_masc. pic.twitter.com/Uu1k3RmMdB

— Ozougachimps (@ozougachimps) February 7, 2022

 

Humans developed traits like empathy that incentivize them to care for each other even when it doesn’t directly benefit the survival of their genes. The scientific community is divided over whether other species act based on empathy, and the German researchers hope their discovery will “add another facet to the ongoing debate.”

The team’s next plan is to attempt to identify what kinds of insects chimpanzees catch to apply to injuries. They would then conduct a study to check if they actually have healing properties.

Some bugs that humans have been using for treatments were proven to work in clinical trials, so finding that the same is true for the apes wouldn’t be a surprise. But if not, it would mean chimps have another thing in common with humans: quack medicines.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/548617-chimpanzees-insect-medication-study/

 

 

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