Maxine Harrison
New research attempts to explain the chemical process of what happened at the origin of life in the world.
Scientists say that in order for life to emerge, Earth needs organic compounds which include nitrogen and carbon. However, for millions of years researchers struggled to identify these molecules. Now, this new study theorizes where they could have emerged from.
The research suggests that microlightning could be where these compounds came from. Microlightning is when small invisible electrical sparks that are generated when water droplets break apart.
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Examples of this process can be found in observable nature such as when ocean waves crash against a shore to fall over a waterfall. The research suggests that it's a result of these tiny bursts of energy that could have created chemical reactions which in turn helped create life’s first essential ingredients.
Prof Richard Zare, chemist and professor of natural science at Stanford University says: “To get life, we need carbon and nitrogen bonds”. He continued: “These bonds are needed to make amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and nucleic acids (the building blocks of DNA and RNA).”
This new theory poses the suggestion that the essential compounds needed for life were formed through ongoing small electrical discharges occurring around the planet all the time.
So how did these researchers come to this conclusion?
Well, they investigated how droplets of water get different charges of electricity when broken apart. They discovered that bigger water droplets tended to carry positive charges whilst smaller droplets were negatively charged. But although these tiny droplets are invisible to the human eye, they still carry a noteworthy amount of energy.
Through further testing, the results showed the formation of organic molecules like hydrogen cyanide, glycine and uracil were formed.
Speaking on what the findings of this testing could indicate, Zare said: “We’re only just scratching the surface of the kind of chemistry happening at interfaces,” he said. “Often chemists are busy talking about what happens to the bulk, but what’s going on at the surface is what’s really exciting, and people don’t pay much attention to that.”
Whilst this research doesn’t cover the whole picture of life’s origin, it potentially signals what happened, from a scientific viewpoint, to the energy reactions when life was created.
It also highlights how the everyday interactions with nature, such as a waterfall, could have helped play a role in the origin to the deepest mysteries of life.