Bio-mediated CN cycling in serpentinites and the origin of life
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Hydrogen-rich, high pH conditions associated with serpentinisation are fundamental to some theories of the origin of life on Earth and other planets. In these theories, the first life formed in hydrothermal vents from organic compounds produced by metal-catalysed reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate by hydrogen. Competing theories suggest that life could not have arisen without hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and that HCN was provided by vaporisation of large impactors. Here, we show that carbon- and nitrogen-bearing species are associated with chalcopyrite and native copper in serpentinised peridotite from the Wadi Tayin Ophiolite, Oman. We propose a model in which serpentinisation produces hydrogen that reduces copper in chalcopyrite to form native copper, and reduces oxidised carbon and nitrogen to form reduced carbon and nitrogen. In this model, reduction of carbon and nitrogen is catalysed by copper, and previously undocumented nanolayers of silver within metallic copper may enhance catalytic properties in natural systems. Microbial involvement is consistent with microstructural observations, documented microbial activity and isotopic data within the Wadi Tayin Ophiolite. However, similar features can form abiotically. Our discovery establishes spatial links among components believed to have supported the emergence of life. Further, mineral-hosted CN-species provide a previously unconsidered reservoir of nitrogen within serpentinites, which may deliver nitrogen to the deep mantle via subduction.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".