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Article: A rocky start: fresh take on life's oldest story.(iron sulfide theory for origin of life)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 26, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the dark ocean depths, kilometers beneath the waves, scalding water spews from hydrothermal vents as it has for billions of years. Bubbling up at the breaks between Earth's plates, that water is a searing brew of minerals dominated by black iron sulfide. As it billows upward in vast quantities, the minerals roil like smoke from a raging fire. It looks like a place that ought to be dead as stone. Yet on the ancient Earth, that abundant black mineral might have been the crucial ingredient that first sparked all life, some scientists say. As they see it, the simplest life forms got their start within tiny cell-like chambers in iron sulfide rock that settled out from the ...