Iron-silica self-organized membranes, so-called chemical gardens, behave as fuel cells and catalyze the formation of amino/carboxylic acids and RNA nucleobases from organics that were available on early Earth. Despite their relevance for prebiotic chemistry, little is known about their structure and mineralogy at the nanoscale. Studied here are focused ion beam milled sections of iron-silica membranes, grown from synthetic and natural, alkaline, serpentinization-derived fluids thought to be widespread on early Earth. Electron microscopy shows they…

The goal of prebiotic chemistry is the depiction of molecular evolution events preceding the emergence of life on Earth or elsewhere in the cosmos. Plausible experimental models require geochemical scenarios and robust chemistry. Today we know that the chemical and physical conditions for life to flourish on Earth were at work much earlier than thought, i.e., earlier than 4.4 billion years ago. In recent years, a geochemical model for the first five hundred million years…

Rouillard, J.; van Zuilen, M.; Pisapia, C.; Garcia-Ruiz, J. M., An Alternative Approach for Assessing Biogenicity. Astrobiology 2020. Download here: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2020.2282https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2020.2282 The search for signs of life in the ancient rock record, extreme terrestrial environments, and other planetary bodies requires a well-established, universal, and unambiguous test of biogenicity. This is notably true for cellular remnants of microbial life, since their relatively simple morphologies resemble various abiogenic microstructures that occur in nature. Although lists of qualitative…

Opel, J.; Rosenbaum, L.-C.; Brunner, J.; Staiger, A.; Zimmermanns, R.; Kellermeier, M.; Gaich, T.; Cölfen, H.; García-Ruiz, J.-M., Light-switchable anchors on magnetized biomorphic microcarriers. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2020. Download here: https://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlelanding/2020/tb/c9tb02955a#!divAbstract Microcarriers with the ability to release and catch substances are highly desired metamaterials and difficult to obtain. Herein, we report a straightforward strategy to synthesize these materials by combining silica-biomorphs with mesocrystals. An easy access to microcarrier hulls with covalently bound spiropyrans…

Melese Getenet, Juan Manuel García-Ruiz, Cristóbal Verdugo-Escamilla and Isabel Guerra-TGetenet, M.; García-Ruiz, J.M.; Verdugo-Escamilla, C.; Guerra-Tschuschke, I. Mineral Vesicles and Chemical Gardens From Carbonate-Rich Alkaline Brines of Lake Magadi, Kenya. Crystals 2020, 10, 467. Download here: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/10/6/467 Mineral vesicles and chemical gardens are self-organized biomimetic structures that form via abiotic mineral precipitation. These membranous structures are known to catalyze prebiotic reactions but the extreme conditions required for their synthesis has cast doubts on their formation…