Jan 9, 2020
Image: Origins of life - clipartpanda.com
“How did we get here?” That’s a question raised by every man, woman, and child since the dawn of civilization according to mentalflare.com. Despite the incredible advances made across every scientific discipline in the past 100 years, it still seems like we’re no closer to answering this fundamental question. But not everyone is so unsure.
In 2008, this Canadian geologist claimed that he discovered the origins of life inside an otherwise ordinary object. Though many hailed his find as a breakthrough, other scientists called him out as a total quack. So what exactly did he uncover?
The good news for scientists is that there’s no shortage of mysteries to be solved. But Dominic Papineau, a geologist at the University College London, had his sights set on likely the biggest question of all time.
Though many tried and failed before him, Dominic wondered if he could determine the origin of life on Earth. He looked to a peculiar region of his native Canada for that answer. In 2008, he planned a trip to the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt.
Scientists have previously investigated this site, which was a hotbed of volcanic activity long ago. But rather than search for fossils, Dominic was on the hunt for something on the smaller side, a subject you could only see through a microsc
His expedition wouldn’t revolve around any kind of “missing link,” as Dominic hoped to find an organism that appeared billions of years before humanoid life. Of course, such a simple and tiny thing would be unlikely to leave behind much evidence.
The Nuvvuagittuq Belt, located in the far regions of Quebec, stands out even to the untrained eye. Layered iron formations striped across the landscape, with quarter-sized swirls dotting certain rocks. Dominic and his UCL colleagues approached them, hammers in hand.
These mineral sections set off an alarm in Dominic’s head. They resembled structures formed by microscopic creatures in underwater vents, so he couldn’t help but make a connection. The geologist excitedly smashed the specimen right off the cliff.
Dominic’s team of geologists and researchers repeated that process dozens of times, as they amassed over one hundred pounds of rocks. However, they couldn’t tell whether or not these samples added up to anything just by looking at them.
Only close analysis could prove or refute Dominic’s theory. He took the rocks to the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington D.C., where researchers sliced them into cross sections and took a look at their composition.
The microscope revealed filaments running throughout the stone. Papineau and his colleagues felt almost certain that only organisms, not any kind of natural erosion, could have created such a pattern. But that wasn’t the most striking aspect.
These remnants dated back sometime between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years ago. Assuming the geologists hadn’t made any errors, they realized they might have discovered proof of the earliest life on the planet.
Papineau knew he had to tread lightly. There were plenty of scientists before him who made such a bold claim and, once proven wrong, found their careers and reputations in shambles. Still, he figured they had a strong case.
Dominic proposed that these microbes could’ve harvested nutrients from the iron and chemical reactions happening throughout the region. In a way, they could be very similar to the organisms found thriving in toxic deep-sea vents.
And such ancient forms of life would have needed to be hardy and adaptable, too. Dominic’s testing dated them to the Hadean Eon, a time where the planet was filled with storms and eruptions — it was basically Mordor for billion years.
Then, as environmental conditions became less hostile, these microbes could have slowly evolved into all manner of species. Dominic stood by his theory, though many in the geological community dismissed his claims.
This was no surprise, as there has always been disagreement about the origin of biological life. Charles Darwin speculated that a particular chemical reaction in a “warm little pond,” could’ve caused it. But many competing theories have popped up since.
In the 1990s, paleobiologist J. William Schopf announced he’d discovered 3.5 billion year old bacteria in Australia. His peers, however, soon accused him of exaggerating his claims just so he could make history. And he wasn’t even the debate’s most controversial figure.
Some thinkers believe that life traveled to Earth on a meteor, though most scientists hotly reject this explanation. In fact, back in the 1600s, a cosmologist named Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for popularizing such a claim.
With dissension on all sides, Dominic continues to examine his findings. He knows that their investigation affects far more than just a group of bickering biologists. It could mean everything for the future of humanity.
If life could exist in such harsh conditions on Earth, then it might not be so out of the question for organisms to exist on other planets. Dominic’s success could kick-start a search for life on Mars. Recently, scientists have looked into other outer space locales.
In 2019, China made space history as the first nation to ever land a probe on the far side of the moon. The science community lauded the accomplishment, but it turned out the Chinese had another bombshell to drop.
Wu Yanhua, the deputy director of the China National Space Administration, opened up about their big plan. Detailing the purpose of the Chang’e 4 Mission, he explained that his government was particularly interested about life on the moon.
There weren’t any humans aboard the spacecraft, but the “scientific exploration phase” did concern every man, woman, and child on Earth. They sent several types of organisms up there — not just to survive, but to thrive.
The animal kingdom was represented by a colony of fruit flies. Anyone who’s ever found these pests in their home knows how persistent they can be. Still, the more intriguing part of this experiment hinged on a very different creature.
The CSNA shot all kinds of plants up to the moon, except not in mature form. Instead, they focused on various types of seeds, ranging from potato to cotton plants, with the bold objective of growing crops on the moon.
This decision raised immediate comparisons to the sci-fi flick The Martian. In one memorable sequence, Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut character cultivated potatoes using his own excrement as fertilizer. Minus that gross ingredient, the Chinese had very similar aims.
With pollution and climate change jeopardizing the sustainability of life on Earth, this trial could provide a viable alternative. If we could grow food on the moon, then it suddenly wouldn’t be too hard to imagine settling there.
With the spacecraft hurtling toward the moon, the mission was officially underway. Of course, the CSNA didn’t just send a potted plant up into the airless vacuum of space. They had an arsenal of gadgets at their disposal.
The seeds wouldn’t enter the moon soil directly, but rather germinate in a biosphere. Inside, it would receive temperature-controlled air and a steady supply of water. It was a slam-dunk plan — on paper at least.
Once the probe completed its lunar landing, it deployed the biosphere. Cameras and scanners would monitor every development of the fly eggs and seeds, though some skeptics doubted they would make any strides.
Were they right? The non-plant life — the fruit fly eggs and a yeast colony — fizzed almost immediately. From there, the Chinese scientists put all their hopes in their space garden.
Over a week passed with no results. Given the ambitious nature of the plan, a failure to cultivate crops wouldn’t be a huge loss, but still a disappointment. One detail, however, caught the entire agency by surprise after nine days.
Though they’d planned it all along, the CSNA scientists still felt like they’d been struck by lightning when they saw the little sprout. The cottonseed was growing! They shared the news with the world right away.
Their success wasn’t limited to a single leaf either. Multiple cotton seedlings popped up out of the soil, becoming the first plants to grow (in a specially-designed box) on the moon.
They were ecstatic about their accomplishment and envisioned a monstrous amount of vegetation spreading across the satellite. However, they failed to foresee one complication.
Even with the constant heat the biosphere provided, the temperature fluctuated wildly. The unrelenting cold of outer space proved to be a bigger problem than the CSNA realized. All of the cotton withered away.
In the aftermath, the Chinese government diplomatically announced that this experiment had ended. The other objectives of Chang’e 4 went on. Still, experts around the world were energized by this fleeting success.
Simon Gilroy, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recognized the experiment as a key step in sustaining life on the moon. “It’s fantastic to be able to sort of say, yeah, it’s a first tiny step down that path,” he said.
After all, no one expected a few cotton plants alone to make a lunar colony possible. But these sprouts represented one large step for mankind, and very well may have secured our future.
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