Theoretical origin of life: in soda lakes (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 19:07 (7 days ago) @ David Turell

Like Mono lake in California:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250325115650.htm

"Along with nitrogen and carbon, phosphorus is an essential element for life on Earth. It is a central component of molecules such as DNA and RNA, which serve to transmit and store genetic information, and ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which cells need to produce energy.

"Phosphorus may also have played a key role in the origin of life. Certain conditions are needed to trigger the start of the biochemical processes that precede life. One of these is the presence of sufficient phosphorus. Its availability regulates the growth and activities of organisms. Unlike nitrogen or carbon, however, phosphorus is relatively rare at Earth's surface -- which was the case in the era before life existed as well as today.

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"...they conducted experiments in the laboratory. These showed that prebiotic chemistry requires very high concentrations of phosphorus -- about 10,000 times more phosphorus than naturally occurs in water. This raises the question of how and where such high concentrations of phosphorus in water occurred on Earth billions of years ago.

"Earth scientist Craig Walton has a new answer: large soda lakes without natural runoff could maintain phosphorus concentrations for a sufficiently long time, even if life begins to exist in them at some point (and continuously consumes phosphorus).

"Such lakes lose water only through evaporation. This means that phosphorus is left in the water instead of being washed away through rivers and streams. As a result, very high concentrations of phosphorus can build up in these soda lakes.

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"In large soda lakes, the phosphorus concentrations are high enough to sustain both the basic chemical reactions and life over the long term. These high concentrations are achieved through a high volume of inflowing river water, which contains phosphorus, while water only leaves the lake through evaporation. Since phosphorus does not evaporate easily, it stays behind and accumulates in the lake.

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"The origin of life could therefore be closely linked to the special environment of large soda lakes, which, due to their geological setting and phosphorus balance, provided ideal conditions for prebiotic chemistry. "This new theory helps to solve another piece of the puzzle of the origin of life on Earth," says Walton."

Comment: a new and interesting approach. Land-based fossils do not support the idea. I still favor deep sea vents.