Can rocks and hot water make oil-like stuff without life?
Lipid Synthesis Under Hydrothermal Conditions by Fischer- Tropsch-Type Reactions
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Lipids up to C35+ were formed—long chains typically associated with biological organisms.
Before this, scientists thought such long, complex lipids needed enzymes or cells to build. This shows geology alone can make them.
Practical Takeaways
Use this as a model for designing experiments to detect life’s precursors on icy moons like Enceladus or Europa.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Lipids up to C35+ were formed—long chains typically associated with biological organisms.
Before this, scientists thought such long, complex lipids needed enzymes or cells to build. This shows geology alone can make them.
Practical Takeaways
Use this as a model for designing experiments to detect life’s precursors on icy moons like Enceladus or Europa.
Publication
Journal
Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere
Year
1999
Authors
T. McCollom, Gilles Ritter, B. Simoneit
Related Content
Claims (5)
If you heat up formic acid or oxalic acid in a metal container at a high temperature for a couple of days, it can turn into a bunch of oily, waxy, or fatty substances similar to those found in living things.
If you heat up two simple acids—formic acid and oxalic acid—in a hot, pressurized water environment, they both make the same kind of fatty molecules, so either one could work as a starting material to make these lipids.
Scientists used carbon atoms with a special tag to track where the fats in their experiment came from — and they found the fats came from the tagged chemicals they added, not from dirt or other random stuff.
Under hot, watery conditions similar to those deep under the ocean, certain chemical reactions can make oily molecules similar to those found in living things — from very small ones to really big ones, including both plain oils and oils with oxygen in them.
In this experiment, scientists made some oily substances that include simple carbon chains and others with oxygen in them—like alcohols and acids—showing they created a messy mix of organic chemicals without using living things.