Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Air, water
and rock were the only raw
LIFES
materials available on the
earlyearth.
ROCKY The first
living entities must have
been fabricated from these
primitive
resources.
New experiments suggest
START
that mineralsthe basic
components of the rocks
could have played starring
roles in that dramatic feat.
BY ROBER T M. HAZEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBER T LE WIS
FELDSPAR SPECIMEN COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, WITH PERMISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES
ago, asteroid impacts periodically shattered and sterilized clusters of molecules as quickly as they could form.
the planets surface for another half a billion years. And yet, Carbon-based molecules needed protection and assis-
within a few hundred million years of that hellish age, tance to enact this drama. It turns out that minerals could
microscopic life appeared in abundance. Sometime in the have served at least five significant functions, from passive
interim, the first living entity must have been crafted from props to active players, in life-inducing chemical reactions.
air, water and rock. Tiny compartments in mineral structures can shelter sim-
Of those three raw materials, the atmosphere and oceans ple molecules, while mineral surfaces can provide the scaf-
have long enjoyed the starring roles in origins-of-life sce- folding on which those molecules assemble and grow. Be-
narios. But rocks, and the minerals of which they are made, yond these sheltering and supportive functions, crystal faces
have been called on only as bit players or simply as props. of certain minerals can actively select particular molecules
Scientists are now realizing that such limited casting is a mis- resembling those that were destined to become biological-
take. Indeed, a recent flurry of fascinating experiments is re- ly important. The metallic ions in other minerals can jump-
vealing that minerals play a crucial part in the basic chemi- start meaningful reactions like those that must have con-
cal reactions from which life must have arisen. verted simple molecules into self-replicating entities. Most
The first act of lifes origin story must have introduced surprising, perhaps, are the recent indications that elements
collections of carbon-based molecules that could make cop- of dissolved minerals can be incorporated into biological
ies of themselves. Achieving even this nascent step in evolu- molecules. In other words, minerals may not have merely
tion entailed a sequence of chemical transformations, each helped biological molecules come together, they might have
of which added a level of structure and complexity to a group become part of life itself.
of organic molecules. The most abundant carbon-based
compounds available on the ancient earth were gases with Protection from the Elements
only one atom of carbon per molecule, namely, carbon diox- FOR THE BETTER PART of a century, following the 1859
ide, carbon monoxide and methane. But the essential build- publication of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species,
ing blocks of living organisms energy-rich sugars, mem- a parade of scientists speculated on lifes chemical origins.
brane-forming lipids and complex amino acids may include Some even had the foresight to mention rocks and minerals
more than a dozen carbon atoms per molecule. Many of in their inventive scenarios. But experimental evidence
these molecules, in turn, must bond together to form chain- only sporadically buttressed these speculations.
like polymers and other molecular arrays in order to ac- One of the most famous experiments took place at the
complish lifes chemical tasks. Linking small molecules in- University of Chicago in 1953. That year chemist Harold C.
to these complex, extended structures must have been Ureys precocious graduate student Stanley L. Miller at-
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 79
Copyright 2001 Scientific American, Inc.
CRYSTAL POWER
NOTHING COULD BE MORE lifeless than a rock, it seems. So how
could rocks or the minerals that constitute them have assisted the
emergence of life? The answer is chemistry. Minerals grow from simple
molecules into an ordered structure because of chemical reactions.
By the same token, all living organisms from bacteria to bats owe
their ability to grow and function to the hundreds of chemical reactions LEFT-HANDED RIGHT-HANDED
that take place inside cells. AMINO ACID AMINO ACID
Four billion years ago the earth had no life: chemistry, not biology,
altered the planets surface. In that ancient time minerals together
with the oceans and atmosphere were the only materials from
which the first living entity could have arisen. Chemical reactions, then,
must have been the first steps in the origins of life. A sequence of
chemical transformations could have reconfigured the simplest
CALCITE CRYSTAL
components of air, water and rock into primitive collections of carbon-
based molecules that could make copies of themselves.
New experiments are revealing that the critical transformations TEMPLATESThe mineral calcite tends to attract left- and right-handed
might not have been possible without the help of minerals acting as amino acids to different crystal faces. Such a sorting process could explain
containers, scaffolds, templates, catalysts and reactants. why life makes use of only the left-handed variety.
HYDROGEN
PRECURSOR
FELDSPAR MOLECULES NITROGEN AMMONIA
MAGNETITE
CONTAINERSMicroscopic pits appear in abundance on the weathered CATALYSTSMagnetite, an iron oxide mineral, can trigger the recombination
surfaces of feldspar and other common minerals. These tiny chambers could of nitrogen and hydrogen gases into ammonia, the essential compound from
have sheltered lifes precursor molecules from deadly radiation. which living cells acquire nitrogen.
TRAPPED SIMPLE
MOLECULE AMINO
ACID
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KENNETH EWARD BioGrafx
SULFUR
IRON
SCAFFOLDSLayered minerals such as clays can trap stray organic REACTANTSIron and sulfur, the elements that form the active center
molecules between their rigid sheets of atoms. Held close to one another, of certain biological enzymes such as aconitase, can be dissolved from iron
simple molecules can react to form more complex compounds. sulfide minerals under extreme heat and pressure.
A Rock to Stand On
E V E N I F T H E R I G H T raw materials
were contained in a protected place
whether it was a tidal pool, a microscop-
ic pit in a mineral surface or somewhere
inside the plumbing of a seafloor vent
the individual molecules would still be
Institution of Washingtons Geophysical Laboratory since 1976. In the past five years he has ulate that these terraced edges might
designed many of his mineral experiments to mimic the high-pressure environments of deep- force the L and D amino acids to line up
sea hydrothermal vents. Rocks and minerals first piqued Hazens curiosity as a child growing in neat rows on their respective faces. Un-
up in northern New Jersey, a region known for its unusual ore deposits. After receiving a doc- der the right environmental conditions,
torate in earth sciences at Harvard University in 1975 and spending a year at the University of
Cambridge, he joined the staff at Carnegie. In 1990 Hazen took on a second position, as pro- these organized rows of amino acids
fessor of earth science at George Mason University. He is also a part-time professional trum- might chemically join to form proteinlike
peter and the author of numerous articles and books on science, education, history and music. molecules some made entirely of L
amino acids, others entirely of D. If pro- the varied life-forms on the earth today bolic enzymesthe molecules that help
tein formation can indeed occur, this re- arose at a specific time and place. It was living cells process energyhave at their
sult becomes even more exciting, because purely chance that the successful molecule core a cluster of metal and sulfur atoms.
recent experiments by other investigators developed on a crystal face that preferen- For much of the past three years,
indicate that some proteins can self-repli- tially selected left-handed amino acids Wchtershusers provocative theory has
cate. In the earths early history, perhaps over their right-handed counterparts. influenced our experiments at Carnegie.
a self-replicating protein formed on the Minerals undoubtedly could have Our team, including geochemist George
face of a calcite crystal. acted as containers, scaffolds and tem- Cody and petrologist Hatten S. Yoder,
Left- and right-handed crystal faces plates that helped to select and organize has focused on the possibility that me-
occur in roughly equal numbers, so chiral the molecular menagerie of the primitive tabolism can proceed without enzymes in
selection of L amino acids probably did earth. But many of us in origins research the presence of minerals especially ox-
not happen everywhere in the world at suspect that minerals played much more ides and sulfides. Our simple strategy,
84 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Copyright 2001 Scientific American, Inc.
PYRITE: FUELS BIOCHEMICAL REACTIONS