Fe2+ disproportionation within iron-rich alkaline vent analogues reveals proto-bioenergetic systems
Chloé Truong, Nil Gaudu, Orion Farr, Adriana Clouet, Daniel Ferry, François Guyot, Georges Ona-Nguema, Christian Ruby, Wolfgang Nitschke, Olivier Grauby, Simon Duval · 2025
Read Fe2+ disproportionation within iron-rich alkaline vent analogues reveals proto-bioenergetic systems by Chloé Truong, Nil Gaudu, Orion Farr, Adriana Clouet, Daniel Ferry, François Guyot, Georges Ona-Nguema, Christian Ruby, Wolfgang Nitschke, Olivier Grauby, Simon Duval (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12660756.txt.
Description
Chloé Truong and ten co-authors recreate, in a simplified lab setup, the chemistry at alkaline vents on the early ocean floor. Their 2025 study asks whether such vents could have run energy-coupling tricks like those life uses today. Vents of this kind are a leading guess for where life began.
Where vent fluid met ocean-like water, iron minerals formed thin barriers, among them magnetite and green rust. Inside that setting, iron ions split into a more oxidized form and pure metal iron at room temperature. The metal sat wrapped in magnetite, a hint that an easy reaction powered a hard one. The authors call the process a proto-bioenergetic system, a lifeless echo of the energy coupling that cells still perform.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Chloé Truong, Nil Gaudu, Orion Farr, Adriana Clouet, Daniel Ferry, François Guyot, Georges Ona-Nguema, Christian Ruby, Wolfgang Nitschke, Olivier Grauby, Simon Duval |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 38 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |