AST251 - Lecture 4

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1. carbon 4. What are

fractionation stromatolites?
values of
samples

Minerals as old as 4.25 Gy show delta13C

values before -50 (which was in the Hadean
era, which does indicate biological activity,
but geological processes and enrichment by
asteroids could also potentially explain these Structures built up over many years by
results) cyanobacteria; these fossils provide
** some of the earliest evidence for life on
Life tends to have a more negative value in Earth
carbon fractionation Direct fossil evidence dating back as far
as 3.4 Gya
2. How is
carbon 5. What are the two 237U -> half life = 4.468 Gy
fractionation isotopes that are 235U -> half life = 703.8 My
measured? used to cross
verify the age of
the sample
6. What is The transition of "chemicals" to "life"
abiogenesis?
Happened a long time ago so there is
not a lot of evidence

3. What are 7. What is half-life?

carbonaceous
Chondrites

Half-life of an isotope is the time it takes

for half of the atoms in a large sample
of that isotope to decay radioactively

Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites have

been found to contain nucleobases, including
adenine, guanine, and uracil
8. What is 11. What is the RNA
isotopic World?
fractionation?

Short strands of RNA catalysed their

own replication
1. Clay minerals catalyse the formation
of RNA strands up to a few dozen bases
long
2. RNA strands peel away from clay and
Many biological processes have a preference fold, some are capable of catalysing
for one-carbon isotope over another, a chemical reactions
phenomenon called isotopic fractionation 3. Aided by catalysis, folded RNA
Living organisms prefer the lighter isotopes molecules attach to each other to make
** longer RNA strands
life preferes lighter isotope 12C 4. Longer strands can perform more
9. What is catalysis, eventually leading to self-
radioisotope replication
dating? 12. When is earliest As far back as 4.25 Gya
form of indirect
chemical evidence
of the existence
of life?
Using the half-life of Unstable isotopes to 13. Where did the
determine the age of a sample RNA world most
10. What is the likely begin
Miller-Urey
experiment?

Many Thermophiles and Halophiles

Electrically shocking a chemical mix of gases belong to the Archean (most ancient)
thought to represent Earth's early atmosphere - the thermophilic nature of archaea
and oceans points to deep hydrothermal vents

It generated 22 amino acids, and later

versions have produced nucleobases

More recent versions have shown that

precursors of nucleic acids require only H2S,
HCN, and ultraviolet light (all abundant in
young earth)