(Newswire.net — January 2, 2020) — Phosphorus is one of the six chemical elements necessary to create living organisms. For more than half a century, scientists have been tormented by the question of how to find phosphorus in a lifeless environment.
Life may have originated in phosphorus-rich lakes that form the core of DNA molecules, according to a new study done by scientists at Washington University, Science Daily reports.
Experts have known for a long time that life needs phosphorus. The problem is that there is not that much of that chemical element in found nature.
“For 50 years, what’s called ‘the phosphate problem,’ has plagued studies on the origin of life,” according to study leader Jonathan Toner, a University of Washington research assistant professor of Earth and space sciences.
His study focused on carbon-rich lakes that form in dry areas within depressions by collecting water that drains from the environment.
Scientists first checked phosphorus levels in Mono Lake in California, Lake Magadi in Kenya and Lonar Lake in India. They found that these lakes have high phosphorus concentrates, which is why they believe that there is some mechanism in nature to create this element in large quantities.
Scientists have tested the water from these lakes in the lab and have come to the conclusion that most lakes are rich in calcium, which binds phosphorus on Earth, but in carbon-rich waters, carbon suppresses phosphorus and binds to calcium, which leaves the phosphate freely available in the water.
“It’s a straightforward idea, which is its appeal,” Toner said. “It solves the phosphate problem in an elegant and plausible way.”
The report on the study findings conclude that the life on Earth could have originated “from lakes with high phosphorus.” However, the study findings only make a scientifically sustainable theory, yet to be confirmed in full.