Publication Date:
2003-11-15
Description:
We have synthesized inorganic micron-sized filaments, whose microstucture consists of silica-coated nanometer-sized carbonate crystals, arranged with strong orientational order. They exhibit noncrystallographic, curved, helical morphologies, reminiscent of biological forms. The filaments are similar to supposed cyanobacterial microfossils from the Precambrian Warrawoona chert formation in Western Australia, reputed to be the oldest terrestrial microfossils. Simple organic hydrocarbons, whose sources may also be abiotic and indeed inorganic, readily condense onto these filaments and subsequently polymerize under gentle heating to yield kerogenous products. Our results demonstrate that abiotic and morphologically complex microstructures that are identical to currently accepted biogenic materials can be synthesized inorganically.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Garcia-Ruiz, J M -- Hyde, S T -- Carnerup, A M -- Christy, A G -- Van Kranendonk, M J -- Welham, N J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2003 Nov 14;302(5648):1194-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Fuentenueva 18002, Granada, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14615534" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Australia
;
Barium/chemistry
;
Carbonates/*chemistry
;
Crystallization
;
Cyanobacteria
;
Exobiology
;
Formaldehyde/chemistry
;
*Fossils
;
Geologic Sediments/*chemistry
;
Hydrocarbons/*chemistry
;
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
;
Life
;
Microscopy, Electron
;
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
;
Molecular Conformation
;
Phenol/chemistry
;
Silicon Dioxide/*chemistry
;
Temperature
;
X-Ray Diffraction
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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