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Posted on 06/22/2010 4:03:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An obscure compound known as pyrophosphite could have been a source of energy that allowed the first life on Earth to form, scientists now say. From the tiniest bacteria to the complex human body, all living beings require an energy-transporting molecule called ATP to survive. Often likened to a "rechargeable battery," ATP stores chemical energy in a form that can be used by organic matter. "You need enzymes to make ATP, and you need ATP to make enzymes," said researcher Terence Kee of the University of Leeds in England. "The question is: Where did energy come from before either of these two things existed? We think that the answer may lie in simple molecules, such as pyrophosphate, which is chemically very similar to ATP, but has the potential to transfer energy without enzymes." ...Phosphate has 4 oxygen atoms bound to a central phosphorus atom, and is present in all living cells. When two phosphates combine and lose a water molecule, they form pyrophosphate. Pyrophosphite, on the other hand, is rarely encountered, chemist Robert Shapiro at New York University told Livescience... The presence of "one or two thorny little problems" with its rival molecule [pyrophosphate] had left some unanswered questions, Kee said in a telephone interview. The two main problems were that pyrophosphate didn't seem to be available in significant amounts in the geological mineral record, and it doesn't react well without catalysts (which weren't around then), according to Kee. On the other hand, Kee's team has found that pyrophosphite would be "relatively straightforward to prepare from minerals that are known to exist in iron meteorites." The routes to the production of this molecule are simpler than those proposed for pyrophosphate, Kee said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
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Do you believe this stuff? Just curious.
Now where did the ATP come from?
ML/NJ
More pseudo science trying to break down the miracle of life into chemical equations. IOW crusaders against god working about gathering ‘their evidence’
‘Beware Arguna, those who worship lessor gods will go unto them’
Hey, this makes about as much sense as saying the existence of lightening could provide the energy source for the spontaneous formation of an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU chip along with the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system simply by shaking a bunch of sand in sea water for a few hundred million years. Right?
For this hypothesis to work out at all, the researchers will have some ‘splainin’ to do.
It’s a weak analogy that could be applied to ATP.
LOL! Thanks for the reply.
This world is amazing....
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