WilliamBains.co.uk
Cambridge, UK
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I am a scientist, entrepreneur and teacher in the life sciences. Browse or search here for explanation of what it is I do, why I do it, and what links such disparate subjects as the search for extrasolar planets, the chemistry of kidneys, and the economics of venture capital investment. |
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Dec 2018. Phosphine - smelly, dangerous, and a great sign of life. The Seager group has become really interested in phosphine. Phosphine (chemical formula PH3) is an extremely smelly, very toxic gas that is present in a few parts per trillion in Earth's atmosphere. We have published Two papers on this work recently [1] [2]. The bottom line message is complicated, but exciting. Phosphine is very poisonous. It is used as a fumigant because it kills rodents, insects, almost everything. But that toxicity is dependent on oxygen. Phosphine is actually pretty safe if you do not need to breath. Phosphine is also very rare, but our first paper showed that life could actually get energy from making phosphine if certain environmental conditions were met, including there not being any oxygen around. Thos conditions are rare on Earth. Could then be common on other worlds? |
And nothing else makes phosphine (apart from human industry). Volcanoes do not make it, it is not formed by itself in the air. Phosphine is a great sign of life, what astrobiologists call a 'biosignature' So on another world, one where there is no oxygen, the world is more acid than Earth, could phosphine be a sign of life? We think it could, and our colleague Clara Sousa-Silva, is working on just how we could detect phosphine as a sign of life on worlds around other stars. Do we have a favourite world in mind? You bet! Watch this space for more. | |