Miller S L, Bada J L
Department of Chemistry, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093, USA.
Nature. 1988 Aug 18;334(6183):609-11. doi: 10.1038/334609a0.
The discovery of hydrothermal vents at oceanic ridge crests and the appreciation of their importance in the element balance of the oceans is one of the main recent advances in marine geochemistry. It is likely that vents were present in the oceans of the primitive Earth because the process of hydrothermal circulation probably began early in the Earth's history. Here we examine the popular hypothesis that life arose in these vents. This proposal, however, is based on a number of misunderstandings concerning the organic chemistry involved. An example is the suggestion that organic compounds were destroyed on the surface of the early Earth by the impact of asteroids and comets, but at the same time assuming that organic syntheses can occur in hydrothermal vents. The high temperatures in the vents would not allow synthesis of organic compounds, but would decompose them, unless the exposure time at vent temperatures was short. Even if the essential organic molecules were available in the hot hydrothermal waters, the subsequent steps of polymerization and the conversion of these polymers into the first organisms would not occur as the vent waters were quenched to the colder temperatures of the primitive oceans.
在大洋中脊顶部发现热液喷口，并认识到它们在海洋元素平衡中的重要性，是海洋地球化学领域近期的主要进展之一。原始地球的海洋中可能就存在喷口，因为热液循环过程可能在地球历史早期就已开始。在此，我们审视一个流行的假说，即生命起源于这些喷口。然而，这一假说基于一些有关所涉及有机化学的误解。一个例子是，有人认为早期地球表面的有机化合物因小行星和彗星的撞击而被破坏，但同时又假定有机合成可在热液喷口中发生。喷口中的高温不会允许有机化合物的合成，而是会使其分解，除非在喷口温度下的暴露时间很短。即使在热的热液水中存在必需的有机分子，随着喷口水体骤冷至原始海洋的较低温度，随后的聚合步骤以及这些聚合物转化为最初生物体的过程也不会发生。
