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+--- Thread: Cell membrane molecules in space + Can life do with sulfuric acid instead of water? (/thread-10401.html)
Cell membrane molecules in space + Can life do with sulfuric acid instead of water? - C C - May 30, 2021
First evidence of cell membrane molecules in space
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/05/first-evidence-of-cell-membrane-molecules-in-space
EXCERPT: The origin of life is one the great unanswered questions in science. [...] One potential explanation is that the Earth was seeded from space with the building blocks for life. The idea is that space is filled with clouds of gas and dust that contain all the organic molecules necessary for life.
[...] But there is another crucial component for life – molecules that can form membranes capable of encapsulating and protecting the molecules of life in compartments called protocells. On Earth, the membranes of all cells are made of molecules called phospholipids. But these have never been observed in space. Until now.
Víctor Rivilla at the Spanish Astrobiology Centre in Madrid and colleagues, have made the first detection in space of ethanolamine, a crucial component of the simplest phospholipid. The discovery suggests that the interstellar medium is brimming will all the precursors for life. “This has important implications not only for theories of the origin of life on Earth, but also on other habitable planets and satellites anywhere in the Universe,” say the team... (MORE - details)
Living creatures need water. But could they make do with sulfuric acid?
https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/living-creatures-need-water-could-they-make-do-sulfuric-acid-180977846/
INTRO: One of the big questions in astrobiology is whether life can use solvents other than water to facilitate biochemistry. We know how critical water is for life on our planet, and how all biological activity—starting with processes in the cells of microbes, plants, and animals—depends on the availability of water.
Yet water as a solvent also has drawbacks. Especially problematic is how life could originate in water, because it makes organic synthesis more difficult and requires energy. However, because liquid H2O is so abundant on our planet, life found a way to work around its more challenging properties. And because it’s also abundant in the Universe, most life elsewhere would also be expected to find water a convenient solvent.
Yet the intriguing question remains: Could other liquids work as well? In a recent paper, William Bains and his colleagues at MIT looked into the possibility of concentrated sulfuric acid as a potential solvent for life. That substance, as most high school chemistry students are well aware, is known for its ability to dissolve organic compounds. I had my own personal experience with that when I accidently splashed some on my legs when I was a student doing lab work. Although I ran right away to the emergency shower, I saw white clumps—proteins—forming on my legs due to the instant reactivity of the acid with my skin.
For their study... (MORE - details)
RE: Cell membrane molecules in space + Can life do with sulfuric acid instead of water? - Syne - May 30, 2021
(May 30, 2021 02:41 AM)C C Wrote: [...] But there is another crucial component for life – molecules that can form membranes capable of encapsulating and protecting the molecules of life in compartments called protocells. On Earth, the membranes of all cells are made of molecules called phospholipids. But these have never been observed in space. Until now.
Víctor Rivilla at the Spanish Astrobiology Centre in Madrid and colleagues, have made the first detection in space of ethanolamine, a crucial component of the simplest phospholipid. The discovery suggests that the interstellar medium is brimming will all the precursors for life. “This has important implications not only for theories of the origin of life on Earth, but also on other habitable planets and satellites anywhere in the Universe,” say the team...
Notice how their claims always go from something more substantial, like we've never observed phospholipids in space, until now, to something itself insignificant, like "the first detection in space of ethanolamine, a crucial component of the simplest phospholipid," which "has important implications," but not actual evidence for the initial claim.
Just click-bait bullshit or career hyping.