Nuclear geyser model of the origin of life:Driving force to promote the synthesis of building blocks of life

We propose the nuclear geyser model to elucidate an optimal site to bear the first life.Our model overcomes the difficulties that previously proposed models have encountered.Nuclear geyser is a geyser driven by a natural nuclear reactor,which was likely common in the Hadean Earth,because of a much higher abundance of 235U as nuclear fuel.The nuclear geyser supplies the following：（1）high-density ionizing radiation to promote chemical chain reactions that even tar can be used for intermediate material to restart chemical reactions,（2）a system to maintain the circulation of material and energy,which includes cyclic environmental conditions（warm/cool,dry/wet,etc.）to enable to produce complex organic compounds,（3）a lower temperature than 100℃ as not to break down macromolecular organic compounds,（4）a locally reductive environment depending on rock types exposed along the geyser wall,and（5）a container to confine and accumulate volatile chemicals.These five factors are the necessary conditions that the birth place of life must satisfy.Only the nuclear geyser can meet all five,in contrast to the previously proposed birth sites,such as tidal flat,submarine hydrothermal vent,and outer space.The nuclear reactor and associated geyser,which maintain the circulations of material and energy with its surrounding environment,are regarded as the nuclear geyser system that enables numerous kinds of chemical reactions to synthesize complex organic compounds,and where the most primitive metabolism could be generated.

Extraterrestrial Life in the Thermosphere: Plasmas, UAP, Pre-Life, Fourth State of Matter

“Plasmas” up to a kilometer in size and behaving similarly to multicellular organisms have been filmed on 10 separate NASA space shuttle missions, over 200 miles above Earth within the thermosphere. These self-illuminated “plasmas” are attracted to and may “feed on” electromagnetic radiation. They have different morphologies: 1) cone, 2) cloud, 3) donut, 4) spherical-cylindrical;and have been filmed flying towards and descending from the thermosphere into thunderstorms;congregating by the hundreds and interacting with satellites generating electromagnetic activity;approaching the Space Shuttles. Computerized analysis of flight path trajectories documents these plasmas travel at different velocities from different directions and change their angle of trajectory making 45°, 90°, and 180° shifts and follow each other. They’ve been filmed accelerating, slowing down, stopping, congregating, engaging in “hunter-predatory” behavior and intersecting plasmas leaving a plasma dust trail in their wake. Similar life-like behaviors have been demonstrated by plasmas created experimentally. “Plasmas” may have been photographed in the 1940s by WWII pilots (identified as “Foo fighters”);repeatedly observed and filmed by astronauts and military pilots and classified as Unidentified Aerial—Anomalous Phenomenon. Plasmas are not biological but may represent a form of pre-life that via the incorporation of elements common in space, could result in the synthesis of RNA. Plasmas constitute a fourth state of matter, are attracted to electromagnetic activity, and when observed in the lower atmosphere likely account for many of the UFO-UAP sightings over the centuries.

The 14th International Conference on the “Origin of Life” Opened at Tsinghua University

The 14th international conference on the “origin of life” opened at Tsinghua on June 20, bringing together more than 300 scientists from home andabroad for the week-long meeting.

Origin of Life Up in the Air

人们普遍认为,地球上最早的生命是在海洋里形成的。美国科学家最近提出了一个新假说,认为地球高层大气中的微小水滴具备形成有机大分子的条件。生命也就可能诞生于这些空中的水滴之中。

A possible anorthositic continent of early Mars and the role of planetary size for the inception of Earth-like life

The Moon has an anorthositic primordial continental crust. Recently anorthosite has also been discovered on the Martian surface. Although the occurrence of anorthosite is observed to be very limited in Earth＇s extant geological record,both lunar and Martian surface geology suggest that anorthosite may have comprised a primordial continent on the early Earth during the first 600 million years after its formation. We hypothesized that differences in the presence of an anorthositic continent on an Earthlike planet are due to planetary size. Earth likely lost its primordial anorthositic continent by tectonic erosion through subduction associated with a kind of proto-plate tectonics（PPT）. In contrast, Mars and the Moon, as much smaller planetary bodies, did not lose much of their anorthositic continental crust because mantle convection had weakened and/or largely stopped, and with time, they had appropriately cooled down. Applying this same reasoning to a super-Earth exoplanet suggests that, while a primordial anorthositic continent may briefly form on its surface, such a continent will be likely transported into the deep mantle due to intense mantle convection immediately following its formation. The presence of a primordial continent on an Earth-like planet seems to be essential to whether the planet will be habitable to Earth-like life. The key role of the primordial continent is to provide the necessary and sufficient nutrients for the emergence and evolution of life. With the appearance of a ＂trinity＂ consisting of（1） an atmosphere,（2） an ocean, and（3） the primordial continental landmass, material circulation can be maintained to enable a ＂Habitable Trinity＂ environment that will permit the emergence of Earth-like life. Thus, with little likelihood of a persistent primordial continent, a super-Earth affords very little chance for Earth-like life to emerge.

From the Beginning of the World to the Beginning of Life on Earth

Hypersphere World-Universe Model (WUM) is, in fact, a Paradigm Shift in Cosmology [1]. In this paper, we provide seven Pillars of WUM: Medium of the World;Inter-Connectivity of Primary Cosmological Parameters;Creation of Matter;Multicomponent Dark Matter;Macroobjects;Volcanic Rotational Fission;Dark Matter Reactors. We describe the evolution of the World from the Beginning up to the birth of the Solar System and discuss the condition of the Early Earth before the beginning of life on it.

The Basic Principles of Creation of Habitable Planets around Stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

The principle of habitable planets creation of near stars in our galaxy was developed. It was shown that the Earth and the Moon formed as a result of thermal nuclear explosion (TNE) after a collision with a small comet. The comet has broken through the proto-Earth crust, and created conditions for liquid-drop division into the Earth and the Moon. It is shown that the comet impact on the proto-Earth led to formation of continents as well as to formation of the Moon, seas, oceans and atmosphere and to creation of conditions for life origin. The analysis of kimberlitic pipes distribution, as markers of comet fragments motion under a crust, shows that the comet has broken up under crust with formation of many gas bubbles. An analysis of the Martian topography revealed that the comet hit Mars not under a glancing angle. As a result, the products of TNE remained under the Marian crust. The track of the comet movement under the Venus crust was also established. It is shown that the planet surface near comet track is spotted by numerous cracks.

Tandem planet formation for solar system-like planetary systems

We present a new united theory of planet formation,which includes magneto-rotational instability（MRl） and porous aggregation of solid particles in a consistent way.We show that the ＂tandem planet formation＂ regime is likely to result in solar system-like planetary systems.In the tandem planet formation regime,planetesimals form at two distinct sites：the outer and inner edges of the MRl suppressed region.The former is likely to be the source of the outer gas giants,and the latter is the source for the inner volatile-free rocky planets.Our study spans disks with a various range of accretion rates,and we find that tandem planet formation can occur for M = 10^7.3- 10^-6.9Myr^-1.The rocky planets form between 0.4-2 AU,while the icy planets form between 6-30 All;no planets form in 2-6 AU region for any accretion rate.This is consistent with the gap in the solid component distribution in the solar system,which has only a relatively small Mars and a very small amount of material in the main asteroid belt from 2-6 AU.The tandem regime is consistent with the idea that the Earth was initially formed as a completely volatile-free planet.Water and other volatile elements came later through the accretion of icy material by occasional inward scattering from the outer regions.Reactions between reductive minerals,such as schreibersite（Fe-jP）,and water are essential to supply energy and nutrients for primitive life on Earth.

Role of Stable Isotopes in Life——Testing Isotopic Resonance Hypothesis

Stable isotopes of most important biological elements, such as C, H, N and O, affect living organisms. In rapidly growing species, deuterium and to a lesser extent other heavy isotopes reduce the growth rate. At least for deuterium it is known that its depletion also negatively impacts the speed of biological processes. As a rule, living organisms ＂resist＂ changes in their isotopic environment, preferring natural isotopic abundances. This preference could be due to evolutionary optimization; an additional effect could be due to the presence of the ＂isotopic resonance＂. The isotopic resonance phenomenon has been linked to the choice of earliest amino acids, and thus af- fected the evolution of genetic code. To test the isotopic resonance hypothesis, literature data were analyzed against quantitative and qualitative predictions of the hypothesis. Four studies provided five independent datasets, each in very good quantitative agreement with the predictions. Thus, the isotopic resonance hypothesis is no longer simply plausible; it can now be deemed likely. Additional testing is needed, however, before full acceptance of this hypothesis.

Schreibersite on the early Earth:Scenarios for prebiotic phosphorylation

The mineral schreibersite,（Fe,Ni）_3P,provides a reactive source of phosphorus capable of forming phosphorylated molecules.These molecules may have been an important component of prebiotic chemistry,allowing their build-up and eventual commencement of autopoiesis.Discussed here are potential geochemical routes to providing schreibersite,as a potentially important prebiotic mineral,to the Hadean Earth.Two routes are identified：delivery of phosphides by meteoritic material and the reduction of phosphates to phosphides by high-temperature,low-redox conditions.About 1-10% of all crustal phosphorus is estimated to have been in schreibersite during the Hadean,making the long-term reaction of this mineral with organic-laden water plausible for many years.Ultimately,such conditions would have been conducive to the formation of life as we know it today.

Synthesis of Prebiotic Building Blocks by Photochemistry

Ultraviolet(UV)light is a very competent energy source for the synthesis of prebiotic building blocks on early Earth.In aqueous solution,hydrated electron is produced by irradiating ferrocyanide/cuprous cyanide/hydrosulfide by 254 nm UV light.Hydrated electron is a powerful reducing reagent driving the formation of prebiotic building blocks under prebiotically plausible conditions.Here we summarize the photoredox synthesis of prebiotic related building blocks from hydrogen cyanide(HCN)and other prebiotically related molecules.These results indicate biological related building blocks can be generated on the surface of early Earth.

Trimetaphosphate-induced chiral selection between amino acid and nucleoside using ^(15)N-^(31)P coupling NMR

Life on Earth uses a common set of L-amino acids(L-aa)to construct proteins and D-nucleosides(D-Nu)to form nucleic acids,which serve as the carrier of genetic information.Herein,we reveal the in-trinsic mechanism of chiral selection of L-aa and D-Nu from the perspective of chemical origin of life.This work employed^(15)N-labeled L-aa and performed one-pot synthesis of nucleotide amidate of amino acid(N-aa-NMP)using equal amounts of L-^(15)N-aa and D-^(14)N-aa with D-/L-Nu in the aqueous solution of trimetaphosphate,generating L-^(15)N-aa-NMP and D-^(14)N-aa-NMP,respectively.The ^(31)P-NMR data indicated that L-aa was preferentially selected during the formation of N-aa-NMP in the presence of D-Nu.Surpris-ingly,D-aa was preferred over L-aa in the presence of L-Nu.Further analysis revealed that L-^(15)N-aa-D-NMP vs.D-^(14)N-aa-L-NMP and D-^(14)N-aa-D-NMP vs.L-^(15)N-aa-L-NMP were mirror isomers of each other,respec-tively.These data suggest that there could be a set of chiral systems opposite to that on Earth,which infers there might be a world of life that is a mirror image of the Earth.

On the Observable Transition to Living Matter

In recent developments in chemistry and genetic engineering, the humble researcher dealing with the origin of life finds her（him）self in a grey area of tackling something that even does not yet have a clear definition agreed upon. A series of chemical steps is described to be considered as the life-nonlife transition, if one adheres to the minimalistic definition： life is self-reproduction with variations. The fully artificial RNA system chosen for the exploration corresponds sequence-wise to the reconstructed initial triplet repeats, presumably corresponding to the earliest protein-coding molecules. The demonstrated occurrence of the mismatches （variations） in otherwise complementary syntheses （＂self-reproduction＂）, in this RNA system, opens an experimental and conceptual perspective to explore the origin of life （and its definition）, on the apparent edge of the origin.