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Science 14 May 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5673, pp. 972 - 973
DOI: 10.1126/science.1098112
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Perspectives

GEOCHEMISTRY:
Life's Chemical Kitchen

Barbara Sherwood Lollar

The submergence vehicle Alvin provided a view of life in the inhospitable conditions of the deep ocean. How is this life sustained? In her perspective, Sherwood Lollar describes new work (Foustoukos and Seyfried) that provides experimental evidence for production of abiogenic hydrocarbons in H2-rich aqueous systems such as hydrothermal vents and aging ocean-floor deposits. Such geologically sourced H2 and hydrocarbons may support chemolithotrophic life on Earth and be an analog for microbial ecosystems on other planets.

The author is in the Stable Isotope Laboratory, Department of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B1. E-mail: bslollar{at}chem.utoronto.ca

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Organic molecules formed in a "primordial womb".
L. B. Williams, B. Canfield, K. M. Voglesonger, and J. R. Holloway (2005)
Geology 33, 913-916
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