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Presidential Address to the Mineralogical Society of America, Salt Lake City, October 18, 2005: Mineral surfaces and the prebiotic selection and organization of biomolecules

  • Robert M. Hazen EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 31, 2015
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 91 Issue 11-12

Abstract

One of the most enigmatic steps in Earth.s ancient transition from a lifeless planet to a living world was the process or processes by which prebiotic organic molecules were selected, concentrated, and organized into the essential macromolecules of life. More than a half-century of theory and experiment points to the critical roles of mineral surfaces in the assembly of proteins, lipid bilayers, and genetic polymers. This review considers three aspects of this problem: (1) the self-assembly of lipids, which may be enhanced in the presence of minerals; (2) the role of minerals in polymerization of amino acids and nucleic acids; and (3) the selective adsorption of organic species, including chiral molecules, onto mineral surfaces.

Keywords : Surface studies; calcite; quartz; feldspar; new technique; microarray; origin of life
Received: 2006-4-12
Accepted: 2006-5-30
Published Online: 2015-3-31
Published in Print: 2006-11-1

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Presidential Address to the Mineralogical Society of America, Salt Lake City, October 18, 2005: Mineral surfaces and the prebiotic selection and organization of biomolecules
  2. A rare garnet-tourmaline-sillimanite-biotite-ilmenite-quartz assemblage from the granulite-facies region of south-central Massachusetts
  3. Effects of natural radiation damage on back-scattered electron images of single crystals of minerals
  4. Thermal diffusivity of olivine-group minerals at high temperature
  5. Quantum mechanical vs. empirical potential modeling of uranium dioxide (UO2) surfaces: (111), (110), and (100)
  6. AXANES study of Cu speciation in high-temperature brines using synthetic fluid inclusions
  7. A new approach to determine and quantify structural units in silicate glasses using micro-reflectance Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy
  8. Titanium incorporation and VITi3+ -IVTi4+ charge transfer in synthetic diopside
  9. Hugoniot and impact-induced phase transition of magnesite
  10. Finite element modeling of elastic volume changes in fluid inclusions: Comparison with experiment
  11. Thermodynamics of mixing in pyrope-grossular, Mg3Al2Si3O12-Ca3Al2Si3O12, solid solution from lattice dynamics calculations and Monte Carlo simulations
  12. Does antigorite really contain 4- and 8-membered rings of tetrahedra?
  13. New insight into crystal chemistry of topaz: A multi-methodological study
  14. Tetrahedrally coordinated boron in tourmalines from the liddicoatite-elbaite series from Madagascar: Structure, chemistry, and infrared spectroscopic studies
  15. Recovery of stishovite-structure at ambient conditions out of shock-generated amorphous silica
  16. New experimental data on biotite + magnetite + sanidine saturated phonolitic melts and application to the estimation of magmatic water fugacity
  17. Structural effects of pressure on triclinic chlorite: A single-crystal study
  18. New high-pressure phase relations in CaSnO3
  19. A high-pressure Raman spectroscopic study of hafnon, HfSiO4
  20. Single-crystal elasticity of brucite, Mg(OH)2, to 15 GPa by Brillouin scattering
  21. The effect of composition on Cr2+/Cr3+ in silicate melts
  22. Phosphohedyphane, Ca2Pb3(PO4)3Cl, the phosphate analog of hedyphane: Description and crystal structure
  23. Synthesis of novel lead–molybdenum and lead–tungsten oxyhalides with the pinalite structure, Pb3MoO5Cl2 and Pb3WO5Br2
  24. Depolymerization effect of water in aluminosilicate glasses: Direct evidence from 1H-27Al heteronuclear correlation NMR
  25. Hydroxylellestadite from Cioclovina Cave (Romania): Microanalytical, structural, and vibrational spectroscopy data
  26. Matioliite, the Mg-analog of burangaite, from Gentil mine, Mendes Pimentel, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and other occurrences
  27. Letter. Crystallographic alignments in a coccolith (Pleurochrysis carterae) revealed by electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD)
  28. Letter. High-pressure study of FeS, between 20 and 120 GPa, using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction
https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2006.2289
Keywords for this article
Surface studies; calcite; quartz; feldspar; new technique; microarray; origin of life

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Presidential Address to the Mineralogical Society of America, Salt Lake City, October 18, 2005: Mineral surfaces and the prebiotic selection and organization of biomolecules
  2. A rare garnet-tourmaline-sillimanite-biotite-ilmenite-quartz assemblage from the granulite-facies region of south-central Massachusetts
  3. Effects of natural radiation damage on back-scattered electron images of single crystals of minerals
  4. Thermal diffusivity of olivine-group minerals at high temperature
  5. Quantum mechanical vs. empirical potential modeling of uranium dioxide (UO2) surfaces: (111), (110), and (100)
  6. AXANES study of Cu speciation in high-temperature brines using synthetic fluid inclusions
  7. A new approach to determine and quantify structural units in silicate glasses using micro-reflectance Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy
  8. Titanium incorporation and VITi3+ -IVTi4+ charge transfer in synthetic diopside
  9. Hugoniot and impact-induced phase transition of magnesite
  10. Finite element modeling of elastic volume changes in fluid inclusions: Comparison with experiment
  11. Thermodynamics of mixing in pyrope-grossular, Mg3Al2Si3O12-Ca3Al2Si3O12, solid solution from lattice dynamics calculations and Monte Carlo simulations
  12. Does antigorite really contain 4- and 8-membered rings of tetrahedra?
  13. New insight into crystal chemistry of topaz: A multi-methodological study
  14. Tetrahedrally coordinated boron in tourmalines from the liddicoatite-elbaite series from Madagascar: Structure, chemistry, and infrared spectroscopic studies
  15. Recovery of stishovite-structure at ambient conditions out of shock-generated amorphous silica
  16. New experimental data on biotite + magnetite + sanidine saturated phonolitic melts and application to the estimation of magmatic water fugacity
  17. Structural effects of pressure on triclinic chlorite: A single-crystal study
  18. New high-pressure phase relations in CaSnO3
  19. A high-pressure Raman spectroscopic study of hafnon, HfSiO4
  20. Single-crystal elasticity of brucite, Mg(OH)2, to 15 GPa by Brillouin scattering
  21. The effect of composition on Cr2+/Cr3+ in silicate melts
  22. Phosphohedyphane, Ca2Pb3(PO4)3Cl, the phosphate analog of hedyphane: Description and crystal structure
  23. Synthesis of novel lead–molybdenum and lead–tungsten oxyhalides with the pinalite structure, Pb3MoO5Cl2 and Pb3WO5Br2
  24. Depolymerization effect of water in aluminosilicate glasses: Direct evidence from 1H-27Al heteronuclear correlation NMR
  25. Hydroxylellestadite from Cioclovina Cave (Romania): Microanalytical, structural, and vibrational spectroscopy data
  26. Matioliite, the Mg-analog of burangaite, from Gentil mine, Mendes Pimentel, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and other occurrences
  27. Letter. Crystallographic alignments in a coccolith (Pleurochrysis carterae) revealed by electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD)
  28. Letter. High-pressure study of FeS, between 20 and 120 GPa, using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction
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