Do We Really Need the Moon? Page #3
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- Year:
- 2011
- 60 min
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The collision that formed the Moon helped set the scene for life to begin.
But there was still a way to go.
Life didn't start immediately after the collision.
It took up to 700 million years for the first living cells to emerge.
During this time, the Earth was cooling down.
It formed a rocky surface, water vapour condensed to form oceans.
And these oceans were being tugged by the Moon.
They were becoming tidal.
According to the latest theory from one leading chemist,
these early tides may have been the trigger
that kick-started life into action.
This seems like a very odd place to do some chemistry.
- Why are we here?
- On the beach?
To investigate the effect of tides on chemistry taking place on the very early Earth, billions of years ago.
'Professor John Sutherland believes the ebb and flow of the tides
'may have played a crucial role in the origin of life.
'And he's going to show me how it could have happened.
We have to do some chemistry here.
'He's mixing up the sort of basic chemicals found in the first oceans and adding water.
'He's reproducing a tidal pool in his flask.'
And that's your starting tidal pool at high tide.
Then the tide goes out, the sun shines on the pool and starts drying it out.
And rather than wait for that to happen here, because that would take
a long time, I'm going to speed it up by using a burner here.
So what are we trying to mimic?
We're trying to mimic here the,...
the power of the Moon in chemistry on Earth.
So the Moon is responsible for the tides, the tides are filling these
ponds up and then, when the tide goes down, the sun shines, dries it up.
It's an inexorable process of wetting and drying and warming
and that is driven by the Moon.
Having created a soup of chemicals, washed and dried them, there's still one thing missing.
I'm going to now transfer this into
He exposes the chemicals to a blue lamp
that radiates ultraviolet energy
simulating the sun's light shining on the early Earth.
And as a result, he's changing the very structure of the chemicals,...
..creating, as if from nothing, elements of RNA, ribonucleic acid,
an essential component of all living cells.
So we are, in this setup, making some of the building blocks of life?
Yes! Just from simple tidal conditions and simple organic chemistry.
- But it's all driven by the Moon?
- It's ultimately all driven by the Moon.
Life on Earth driven by the Moon.
life probably began in what he called a "warm little pond".
At the time, it was mere speculation.
But now we think he might be right.
These tidal pools represent Darwin's warm little ponds.
Primordial chemistry labs where the raw materials of life can come together.
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"Do We Really Need the Moon?" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/do_we_really_need_the_moon_7028>.
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