[meteorite-list] Life on Earth 'Began on a Radioactive Beach'

[Göran Axelsson]

If there were a lot of radioactive beaches then it would appear in a 
number of deposits as depleted uranium. As far as I know the only place 
that depleted uranium have been found is in Oklo, Gabon. 
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml

An ore with depleted levels of uranium would add some credibility to 
that theory but right now I only see it as a highly unlikely event and 
in best case only a minor contributor to the primordial soup.

Other sources of building blocks as carbonaceous meteorites and 
lightning strikes in an methane atmosphere is so much bigger than the 
effect from a 5kW nuclear reactor. (I don't remember exact effect but it 
wasn't high.)

/Göran

Charles Viau wrote:

> Interesting, however most CC's we have studied, especially Allende and

> Murchison are loaded with these complex molecules (amino acids). The planet

> was pelted with CC's long before there were any oceans and then when oceans

> did form, those complex molecules would have been dissolved into the ocean

> readily.  The 'radioactive beach'  effect seems miniscule considering how

> much of the basic building blocks of life were already steeping in the

> primordial soup. 

> Yes? No?

> CharlyV

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com

> [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Ron Baalke

> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 9:00 PM

> To: Meteorite Mailing List

> Subject: [meteorite-list] Life on Earth 'Began on a Radioactive Beach'

>

>

> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/20

> 08/01/09/scibeach109.xml  

>

> Life on Earth 'began on a radioactive beach'

> By Nic Fleming

> The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

> January 9, 2008

>

> Life on Earth began on a radioactive beach, a scientist claimed today.

>  

> According to computer models, deposits could collect at a beach's high

> tide mark in sufficient quantity to trigger fission reactions

>

> The sifting and collection of radioactive material by powerful tides

> could have generated the complex molecules that led to the evolution of

> carbon-based life forms - including plants, animals and humans.

>

> While radiation may seem an unlikely candidate to kick-start life

> because it breaks chemical bonds and splits large molecules, it also

> crucially provides chemical energy needed to generate some of the basic

> building blocks of life.

>

> Zachary Adam, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington in

> Seattle, has suggested the collection of radioactive material on a beach

> as a new theory for the origins of life - to be added to the existing

> long and varied list of hypotheses.

>

> One is its emergence from a "primordial soup" of simple organic

> chemicals accumulated on the surface of bodies of water within the

> hydrogen-rich early atmosphere - formulated in the 1920's by English

> geneticist J. B. S. Haldane and Russian biochemist Alexander Oparin.

>

> Others include early life forming in inorganic clay, the initial energy

> coming not from chemical reactions but from sunlight or lightening and

> the arrival of microscopic seeds of terrestrial life on chunks of

> meteorites or comets, and the intervention of a divine, intelligent

> designer.

>

> In work highlighted in this week's New Scientist magazine, Mr Adam

> suggests the more powerful tides generated by the moon's closer orbit

> billions of years ago compared to today could have sorted radioactive

> material from other sediment.

>

> According to his computer models, deposits could collect at a beach's

> high tide mark in sufficient quantity to trigger the self-sustaining

> fission reactions - as occur in natural seams of uranium.

>

> Mr Adam demonstrated in laboratory experiments that such a deposit could

> produce the chemical energy to generate some of the molecules in water

> which produce amino acids and sugars - key building blocks of life -

> when irradiated.

>

> A deposit of a radioactive material called monazite would also release

> soluble phosphate, another important ingredient for life, into the gaps

> between sand grains - making it accessible to react in water.

>

> Mr Adam told the New Scientist: "Amino acids, sugars and [soluble]

> phosphate can all be produced simultaneously in a radioactive beach

> environment."

>

>