Phosphorylated biomolecules like RNA, DNA, ATP, phospholipids, and many coenzymes are critical to life as we know it. Presumably, given their central role in life, phosphorylated biomolecules were also critical for the origin or early evolution of life on the Earth. The origin of these biomolecules remains one of the major questions in origins of life research.
Recent discoveries have suggested that the reaction of meteoritic schreibersite with water produces abundant reduced phosphorus compounds which may have encouraged the synthesis of critical prebiotic molecules. The cosmochemistry, geochemistry, and biochemistry of phosphorus will be summarized to point to pathways for the incorporation of phosphorus in the origin of life.
Getting Under Europa’s Skin
Tracing Formation and Evolution of Outer Solar System Bodies Through Stable Isotopes and Noble Gas Abundances
Photosynthesis, a Planetary Revolution
Xenon: King of the Gases
NAI
