Phosphate Problem for Origin of Life Solved? Dirk Schulze-Makuch , Air & Space Magazine January 5, 2020 AP Photo/Christopher Torchia
In a new paper just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jonathan Toner and David Catling of the University of Washington in Seattle lay out their case that carbonate-rich lakes might have been a critical requirement for the origin of life.
Phosphorus is essential for creating life's building blocks, such as DNA, ATP, and lipids. But a long-standing problem has been where early life would have gotten its supply of phosphorus molecules, which typically are found only in tiny amounts in the natural environment.