3 ms·

Has anyone proven that the "soup" has to be liquid? I'm no chemist, but I was curious one day so I looked through the chemical composition of humans, and was s

Has anyone proven that the "soup" has to be liquid? I'm no chemist, but I was curious one day so I looked through the chemical composition of humans, and was surprised to see that almost all of the base elements from the periodic table that we are composed of are lighter than air. Just ran the numbers again for this post: ~96.2% oxygen,hydrogen,nitrogen,carbon ~ 3.8% calcium,phosphorus, potassium,sulfur,sodium, chlorine,magnesium The highest atomic number for any of these elements is 20 (calcium), while krypton is listed on wikipedia as a "major constituent in earth's atmosphere" with an atomic number of 36. EDIT: And in fact it gets more interesting when you analyze the chemical composition of DNA / RNA.

naniwaduni 7y ago
> almost all of the base elements from the periodic table that we are composed of are lighter than air This is almost completely gibberish since you don't find atoms in isolation.
- outworlder 7y ago
  > This is almost completely gibberish since you don't find atoms in isolation. No you don't. You find them in molecules. Nowadays it is a bit tough to find the pure gases in our planet, but they are readily available in high quantities in our universe. In gaseous form, even.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - unexaminedlife 7y ago
    Very interesting. That's probably another assumption that may be worth attention. Is it necessary that DNA / RNA molecules were originally formed on earth? This may not be directly relevant to this idea, but first thing that came to mind when I read your comment was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
- unexaminedlife 7y ago
  Reluctantly I have to admit my knowledge here is minimal, though I find it extremely interesting. And from another comment I recognized that though I was questioning whether the "soup" was liquid, I was still assuming that this reaction occurred on earth. If I remember correctly I believe all (or probably at least "most") of the basic elements do start out in their elemental form as the result of supernovae. I think this would be a relevant wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis
MauranKilom 7y ago
Of those elements you list, only hydrogen and nitrogen are "lighter than air" (in the sense that they are commonly found in gaseous form with molecular weight below that of the air average).

naniwaduni 7y ago

> almost all of the base elements from the periodic table that we are composed of are lighter than air This is almost completely gibberish since you don't find atoms in isolation.

outworlder 7y ago
> This is almost completely gibberish since you don't find atoms in isolation. No you don't. You find them in molecules. Nowadays it is a bit tough to find the pure gases in our planet, but they are readily available in high quantities in our universe. In gaseous form, even.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- unexaminedlife 7y ago
  Very interesting. That's probably another assumption that may be worth attention. Is it necessary that DNA / RNA molecules were originally formed on earth? This may not be directly relevant to this idea, but first thing that came to mind when I read your comment was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
unexaminedlife 7y ago
Reluctantly I have to admit my knowledge here is minimal, though I find it extremely interesting. And from another comment I recognized that though I was questioning whether the "soup" was liquid, I was still assuming that this reaction occurred on earth. If I remember correctly I believe all (or probably at least "most") of the basic elements do start out in their elemental form as the result of supernovae. I think this would be a relevant wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis

MauranKilom 7y ago

Of those elements you list, only hydrogen and nitrogen are "lighter than air" (in the sense that they are commonly found in gaseous form with molecular weight below that of the air average).