Was Clay The Birthplace Of Life?
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - 17:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Everyone has a hypothesis about the 'birthplace of life' and a new paper adds clay to that list. In simulated ancient seawater, clay forms a hydrogel, a mass of microscopic spaces capable of soaking up liquids like a sponge. Over billions of years, chemicals confined in those spaces could have carried out the complex reactions that formed proteins, DNA and eventually all the machinery that makes a living cell work. Clay hydrogels could have confined and protected those chemical processes until the membrane that surrounds living cells developed, according to the computer model. read more