Harking back to the origin of life, here's a long shot that seems to be paying off...
OK, we already know that electricity zapping water with CO2 and NH3 dissolved produces amino acids... now this:
The researchers shot a can-sized bullet onto a coin-sized metal target containing a droplet of water mixed with amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. To date more than seventy varieties of amino acids have been found in meteorites and some in interstellar dust and gas clouds.
It was observed that not only did a good fraction of the amino acids survive the collision, many had been polymerised into chains of two, three and four amino acids, so-called peptides, the first stage of building proteins. What's more, freezing the target to mimic an icy comet actually increased the survival rate of the amino acids.
The test was designed to simulate the type of impact that would have been frequent during Earth's early history, some four billion years ago, when rocky, icy debris in our solar system accumulated to form planets.
news.bbc.co.uk
Interesting finish, too:
The next hitch-hikers she plans to subject to a shock test are bacterial spores, which some have proposed arrived on Earth via comets to jump-start evolution.
So, could Hoyle have been right after all (although I think Wickramsinghe/Chandrashekar also had the idea)?
LOL. What's that phrase, 'more by accident than by design'? Don't think I've seen it used in this context before. |
