Last Chance Lake, pictured in June 2022, could be an example of Charles Darwin's 'warm little pond' theory, which hypothesized that life emerged from a shallow lake with the right mixture of chemicals and energy. Photo: (Submitted by David Catling) CANADACANADA eng A shallow, salty lake in B.C. could point to origins of life on Earth by admin 7 فبراير، 2024 written by admin 7 فبراير، 2024 60 RCI Researchers found Last Chance Lake has right ingredients for formation of early life Scientists have mused for centuries over questions about the origins of life on Earth. As it turns out, the answer may lie in a small, unassuming lake in British Columbia’s Interior. Last Chance Lake, located about 150 kilometres northwest of Kamloops, B.C., is shallow and filled with murky water. A recent study from the University of Washington found it has just the right conditions to be what scientists call a cradle of life — a place where life could have spontaneously emerged billions of years ago. We’re trying to answer one of the biggest unanswered questions in science, which is where did we come from? said the study’s senior author, David Catling. A piece of salt crust is held by one of the researchers. Green algae can be seen in the middle, with black sediment at the bottom.Photo: (Submitted by David Catling) Catling said Last Chance Lake supports the warm little pond hypothesis from 19th century scientist Charles Darwin. Darwin proposed life on Earth could have emerged in shallow lakes with the right ingredients. Last Chance Lake has some key components of this cocktail, according to the researchers: It has high levels of salt, minerals from the volcanic flat it lies on — the Cariboo Plateau — and a very high concentration of phosphate. In order for life to form, Catling says the concentrations of phosphate need to be 100 to one million times higher than the levels normally found in water bodies on Earth. While there are several phosphate-dense bodies of water on Earth, the team found Last Chance Lake to have the highest levels ever recorded through a literature scan — information that was tucked away in the appendix of a master’s thesis at the University of Saskatchewan from the ’90s. It was … a bit of luck and a bit of persistence that allowed us to identify this, said Catling. We thought that’s pretty handy because we can actually drive there from Seattle. The team visited the lake three times over different seasons, noting the lake freezes over in the winter and dries up to form a salt flat at the end of the summer, when phosphate concentrations are highest. Catling says these phosphate-dense lakes would have been more common on Earth around four billion years ago. It all seemed to fall into place, said Catling. What we thought was happening, was happening. Hydrothermal vents CBC science columnist Torah Kachur says the warm little pond theory is one of several that try to explain the beginnings of life on Earth. Another popular hypothesis is that life was created from high pressure, mineral-dense hydrothermal vents located at the bottom of the ocean. She says while lakes like Last Chance Lake don’t have the same high-pressure energy as a hydrothermal vent, they have all the necessary ingredients. When Darwin suggests something — he was right about a lot of things — we add it to the list of places that we need to investigate more, said Kachur. Extraterrestrial implications Previous studies about early life have also focused on B.C. In 2011, a team of American and Canadian scientists explored two B.C. lakes (new window) to study the earliest forms of microbe-based life, fine-tuning exploratory techniques and clues that might be useful on future space missions. Catling said the findings from this study suggest life may have formed in a similar way on other planets at some point in time. The rock formation that leads to the development of lakes similar to Last Chance Lake are common on rocky planets, he says. The study’s researchers walk on Last Chance Lake in September 2022. Most of the water in the lake evaporates during summer, forming a salt flat.Photo: (Submitted by Zack Cohen) Under different atmospheric conditions, when the solar system was young, he says these kinds of lakes could have formed on planets like Mars or Venus. The conditions for it may not be so uncommon. It may not be such a miracle. It’s just something that happens naturally in the environment, said Catling. That’s a sort of positive message for the origin of life. Michelle Gomez (new window) · CBC News 0 comment 0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail admin previous post هل يفكر النجوم العرب بكتابة قصص حياتهم وتقديمها بأعمال فنية؟ next post وزير الهجرة ’’غاضب‘‘ من منع فلسطينيين من الانضمام إلى أقارب في كندا You may also like ارتفاع إجمالي الناتج المحلي بـ0,3% في تشرين الأول... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 خبيرة إسرائيلية تطالب بالعدالة لضحايا العنف الجنسي في... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 كندا: تراجع عدد الوفيات بأشباه الأفيونيات بـ11%، لكنّه... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 A massive, menacing Steller’s sea eagle is dazzling... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 Three North Atlantic right whales spotted entangled this... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 Quebec doing better job at retaining immigrants, Atlantic... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 Halifax man charged after allegedly hitting police officer... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 Holiday travel could be tricky as Christmas storm... 24 ديسمبر، 2024 عقوبات صينية على منظمتيْن كنديتيْن تدعمان الإيغور والتيبتيّين 23 ديسمبر، 2024 مَنْح الدكتورة ندى جباضو وسام كندا من رتبة... 23 ديسمبر، 2024