NASA researchers light a bulb using 'seafloor gardens' to explain the origin of life

To unravel the mystery of origin of life, a team of researchers at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab tried to create the lab conditions that existed nearly 3.8 million years ago, the era when the life is believed to have started on Earth. The researcher team recently channeled electricity from the seafloor chemical gardens that lit up an LED light bulb, explaining how early life on Earth harnessed energy for survival.

It is a known fact that all the living organisms on Earth harness energy by transferring electrons across a gradient. During the study, the research team creates their own set of chimneys called “chemical gardens.” Some experts believe that during the early formation of life, the single-celled organisms used such channels to harness electricity from the seafloor.

According to the lead author of the study published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Laurie Barg, the chimneys created by the research team acted similar to “electrical wires on the top of the seafloor,” reported the Tech Times. A NASA report said some experts trying to study the origin of life on Earth believe that the life originated from the ocean floor because of the warn alkaline chimneys.

In a report by Gizomodo, the research team says that these chimneys create an electrical gradient across the membrane of minerals. Thus, separate compartments with different electrical balance are created. The difference in the electrical balance facilitates the important processes for the life to originate and lead to the formation of organic compounds and energy necessary for survival.

The chemical chimneys produced by the researchers resembled the alkaline vests that existed during the origin of life. During the study, the researchers were able to generate enough energy using the chimney to light an LED bulb. For the study, the researchers used four chemical gardens tied together in a tub containing iron.

The research team says that future experiments could be carried out using chimneys that mimic conditions of other materials with electric potential, including nickel, molybdenum and hydrogen.

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