How and where did life on Earth originate? To date, various environments have been
proposed as plausible sites for the origin of life. However, discussions have focused on a …

Submarine hydrothermal vents are geochemically reactive habitats that harbour rich
microbial communities. There are striking parallels between the chemistry of the H2–CO2 …

Abstract The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on board the Mars Science
Laboratory Curiosity rover is designed to conduct inorganic and organic chemical analyses …

The development of highly accurate and computationally efficient modeling software based
on Gibbs energy minimization (GEM) makes it possible to thermodynamically simulate …

Ideas about atmospheric composition and climate on the early Earth have evolved
considerably over the last 30 years, but many uncertainties still remain. It is generally agreed …

The aqueous alteration of ultramafic rocks through serpentinization liberates mantle carbon
and reducing power. Serpentinization occurs in numerous settings on present day Earth …

Arguments for an abiotic origin of low-molecular weight organic compounds in deep-sea hot
springs are compelling owing to implications for the sustenance of deep biosphere microbial …

The Flores diving cruise was part of the MAST III-AMORES (1995–1998) program funded by
the European Union. One of the major achievements of the Flores cruise was the discovery …

A model for the origin of biochemistry at an alkaline hydrothermal vent has been developed
that focuses on the acetyl-CoA (Wood–Ljungdahl) pathway of CO2 fixation and central …

For life to have emerged from CO2, rocks, and water on the early Earth, a sustained source
of chemically transducible energy was essential. The serpentinization process is emerging …