Stephen E. Jones wrote:
Dr Gunter Wachtershauser, a leading
>researcher in this field ... [said] the new research was another piece of the
>jigsaw. "It means you don't need an ocean to create life," he said. "All you
>need is a little water vapour and a lot of volcanic activity." [If it only
>takes "a little water vapour and a lot of volcanic activity" why is it so
hard?
I don't know chemistry, but the root 'pyr' in pyruvic suggests that this
organic acid has long been associated with high temperatures.
Volcanic vents are such small and isolated environments compared to the
waters of the Earth, and volcanic emissions are so unfriendly to life as we
know it, it's hard to put much stock in this particular OOL theory.
The ecosystems that presently inhabit undersea vents are not anaerobic;
they do indeed metabolize some volcanic emissions, but they live on the
edge of the anaerobic zone and use oxygen, so they probably weren't
around before algae put oxygen into the atmosphere.
--Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ 415-648-0208 ~ cliff@cab.com
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