Is it Earth’s destiny to sustain life? At least the one we know

By Marta Koblańska, February 16, 10:30, Photo: PIRO, Pixabay

When a new life is arising, an old one is passing away. Ancient belief for life cycles may be true, as chemistry set up founds for environmental processes crucial for emerging lives on Earth.

One of the greatest ever philosophers Baruch/Benedictus Spinoza claimed that Earth in the clash with the Universe was like a box of matches and people living on the Blue Planet were not even matches but rather a match’s heads (do not confuse it with head). So, how did we become part of Earth and this tiny part of the Universe? Years after Spinoza, many scientists searched for the answer, but no one completely succeeded. Possibly, some of them got close like Alexandr Oparin as well as Polish priest Włodzimierz Sedlak. The latter believed a prebiotic soup of molecules and light could have contributed to life.

New character of life-cycles

Now, scientists from Israel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) in a newly published study in ,,Nature Chemistry” invert common view that life arising possibly from non-living matter is absolutely coincidence. They say, instead, the chemistry of prebiotic conditions available on ancient Earth created a good base for wet and dry cycles of molecules’ reactions, bonds and breakups what resulted with first organic and then living-matter. What is more, in their experiment in the laboratory where the scientists mimicked conditions of prehistoric Earth, they observed selected biomaterial behaved in line with already set patterns. That excluded random bonds and thus random evolution of chemical base which we all have in our bodies.

By demonstrating that chemical systems can self-organize and evolve in structured ways, we provide experimental evidence that may help bridge the gap between prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of biological molecules,

say Kavita Matange and dr Moran Frenkel-Pinter, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Of course all of this is not so simple. There are millions of mechanisms as well as chemical and biological features influencing life arise along with conditions necessary to sustain it. But the study shows that in the case of selected molecules which chemistry stipulates billions (but only some of them have the potential for life-origin), life is not impossible to create. Science-fiction? Not exactly.

What did scientists discover?

Israeli scientists confirmed chemical compounds can continuously evolve without reaching equilibrium, what another words means that along with creation of products coming from a chemical reaction, the process issues substrates i.e. compounds for these and other products while final amounts of these ingredients may not necessarily correspond. This is why ancient beliefs on life may be true. Moreover, the examined compounds show plasticity in the way of transformation via selection of chemical mechanisms active during the change as well as they may differ strongly one population from another. However, the dynamics of populations is synchronizated.

Is it safe for us to get control on life-origin? Yes and no. Yes because we can realize how fragile life is. No, because we are gaining enormous power on it.