Mar 8, 2022 04:05 AM
https://thenextweb.com/news/scientists-t...e-on-earth
EXCERPTS: . . . the basic building blocks of life had to be present before anything could ooze its way out of the soup and into the future. So the question is: how did amino acids end up on Earth?
According to the research team [...] our origin story actually began in space. ... the researchers experimentally formed complex amino acids in a space-like environment...
[...] Here on Earth, it’s warm enough for atoms to use thermal energy to overcome the energy barriers to their formation into amino acids. But out there in space? It’s cold and molecules are lazy. They don’t have enough energy to climb over the energy barrier.
[...] A particle’s wave-like behavior doesn’t stop just because something’s in the way. Even though it doesn’t have enough energy to overcome the barrier, probability says the wave can be on either side.
Basically, life on Earth exists because the universe allows particles to glitch through walls like characters in a poorly-modeled video game world.
The amino acids we’re made out of were very likely formed in space through ridiculous circumstances before eventually being forged into cosmic masses made of improbable organics.
Per the team’s research paper:
"As demonstrated here, a portion of these organics could be in the form of peptides. At later stages, such dust becomes the building blocks of comets or meteorites. The formed organics could therefore have been delivered to the early Earth during the period of heavy bombardment."
Quantum tunneling might sound like the kind of thing scientists make up when they can’t explain what happened, but it’s actually a phenomenon they’re quite familiar with. The sun, for example, only shines because enough random particles tunnel past their own energy barriers to cause the chemical reactions necessary to keep it burning... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . the basic building blocks of life had to be present before anything could ooze its way out of the soup and into the future. So the question is: how did amino acids end up on Earth?
According to the research team [...] our origin story actually began in space. ... the researchers experimentally formed complex amino acids in a space-like environment...
[...] Here on Earth, it’s warm enough for atoms to use thermal energy to overcome the energy barriers to their formation into amino acids. But out there in space? It’s cold and molecules are lazy. They don’t have enough energy to climb over the energy barrier.
[...] A particle’s wave-like behavior doesn’t stop just because something’s in the way. Even though it doesn’t have enough energy to overcome the barrier, probability says the wave can be on either side.
Basically, life on Earth exists because the universe allows particles to glitch through walls like characters in a poorly-modeled video game world.
The amino acids we’re made out of were very likely formed in space through ridiculous circumstances before eventually being forged into cosmic masses made of improbable organics.
Per the team’s research paper:
"As demonstrated here, a portion of these organics could be in the form of peptides. At later stages, such dust becomes the building blocks of comets or meteorites. The formed organics could therefore have been delivered to the early Earth during the period of heavy bombardment."
Quantum tunneling might sound like the kind of thing scientists make up when they can’t explain what happened, but it’s actually a phenomenon they’re quite familiar with. The sun, for example, only shines because enough random particles tunnel past their own energy barriers to cause the chemical reactions necessary to keep it burning... (MORE - missing details)