Key Organic Molecules for Life's Origins Discovered in Simulated Ancient Vents

Newcastle University research suggests hydrothermal vents could have fostered the genesis of life, with implications for potential life on icy moons.

Researchers at Newcastle University have simulated ancient hydrothermal vent conditions, leading to the creation of key organic molecules, potentially forming the earliest cell membranes.
The experiments involved combining hydrogen, bicarbonate, and iron-rich magnetite under conditions similar to mild hydrothermal vents, resulting in a range of organic molecules, including fatty acids with up to 18 carbon atoms.
The findings potentially reveal how some key molecules needed to produce life are made from inorganic chemicals, which is essential to understanding a key step in how life formed on the Earth billions of years ago.
The researchers suggest that similar membrane-creating reactions could be happening in the oceans under the surfaces of icy moons in our solar system today.
The team is now focusing on how these organic molecules, initially adhering to mineral surfaces, might have formed spherical membrane-bounded cell-like compartments, potentially the first 'protocells.'