Did biology begin with tiny bubbles?

Abstract

illions of years ago, a mix of organic molecules formed and started the chemical reactions that became life. In a new study, researchers in Germany propose that tiny air bubbles in water sloshing through volcanic rocks could have helped concentrate those molecules to start the process (Nat. Chem. 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41557-019-0299-5). Over 10 years ago, Dieter Braun’s group at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich showed that polymers like DNA can move along a temperature gradient in a process called thermophoresis. As they studied the phenomenon further, the researchers wondered whether thermophoresis could help move prebiotic molecules around in the tiny channels in volcanic rocks, one of the places where scientists think life on Earth may have started. The researchers have found that bubbles in liquid-filled microchannels, like those in volcanic rock, provide an air-water interface where biomolecules can accumulate. Braun compares it to a coffee ring, with particles congregating at the