ASTRON 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Hydrothermal Vent, Apollo 12, Vacuum
18 Dec 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
**the most basic kind of natural selection would be selecting for organic compounds that are in some sense durable. Life on earth is based heavily on: carbon chain molecules, water to dissolve things in. Silicon doesn"t make stable long chains: silicon (think prometheus movie, alien), ammonia for a solvent, sulphur. Life probably requires large molecules, liquids/solvents and reliable energy sources. On earth, the large molecules are carbon based and the solvent is water. At the start of the food chain, there are organisms that get energy from a reliable. Energy for life non-living source, e. g. light: chemicals. Bacteria can derive energy from many chemical sources, including gases, heavy metals, some plastics and chemicals poisonous to humans. You can only get energy from reactive chemicals, not in their usual oxidized, low energy state. Reactive chemicals must be generated, e. g. via geothermal activity (e. g. Reactive chemicals must be generated, e. g. via geothermal activity (e. g. undersea volcanoes).
