I live from a drop of oil

2011/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia
• Eboluzioa
• Kimika

A new hypothesis breaks the debate on the origin of life at the last congress of the Royal British Society of Science. Dr. Martin Hanczyc and professor at the University of Southern Germany have proposed the possibility of having a drop of oil of origin.

There is more than one theory that explains how life arose, but there is no hope of finding geological evidence that definitively resolves the issue, since the terrestrial surface is renewed and the oldest rocks are 3,800 million years ago. By then he had already been born alive and was quite complex.

Therefore, researchers try to create in the laboratory the initial conditions of the Earth to develop a living structure from the starting elements. Normally these elements are basic components of living cells, such as RNA, carbohydrates, etc.

Hanczyc has started from a much simpler structure: a drop of oil. In the first experiments he used nitrogen oil. Placed in a very basic environment, and adding a chemical matter of energy supply (oleic anhydride), he observed that the oil drops had "metabolism", since they were able to move to the most basic environment possible and feed on chemical matter. In Hanczyc's words, he achieved "immortal" drops: if they gave energy, they were still moving.

Hanczyce continues to investigate with drops of oil and believes they have great powers. For example, they avoid the encounter between them, which, according to Hanczyc, implies a certain chemical communication. What's more, the events that occurred in the past in oil drops influence the future, so the researcher believes they have memory.

Now it seeks a mechanism for the oil drops to reproduce themselves. In parallel, instead of the materials used for the formation of the first drops of oil, the creation of elements similar to those of the primitive Earth is being tested. It is being used, among others, mineral oil, carbohydrates and other simple organic compounds, which can be a history of amino acids. He has already obtained some results and Hanczyce has stated that the new oil drops have many of the behaviors they had.

The experts have opined of all kinds about the work of Hanczyc. Despite their interest to some, for others, these oil drops are too simple to be considered as lively or alive, especially because they do not contain genetic materials. As Cambridge University researcher Philipp Holliger said, "You must put software on the hardware to work."

However, Hanczyce has opted for his drops of oil and has not only indicated that they can be antecedents of the first living beings of the Earth, but has gone further and said that they can be alive somewhere, as is the case of sinking in the deep Earth. Or in some corner of the solar system, as in Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn, a satellite rich in carbohydrates.