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Ancient Odours

A four-billion-year-old aroma has been wafting around the country in the wake of visiting US scientist Professor David Deamer. The musty, dusty smell comes from organic material extracted from a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite.

The organic material can form bubbles that could hold large molecules like DNA, providing a possible answer as to how life arose on Earth.

"The material is a mixture of hydrocarbon derivatives resembling smoke components. It has an oily character, which means it could float on ocean surfaces like a slick and gather in tidal pools. Many researchers think that warm tidal pools at the ocean's edge would have been ideal places for life to start, " said Deamer.

Lincoln University hosted Deamer in his recent visit, but his mind may have been further south.

"The Antarctic continent is a rich source of meteorites including carbonaceous chondrites, " he noted. "Over 10,000 meteorites have been collected there, of which hundreds are carbonaceous." As far as the biophysicist knows, there have been no carbonaceous chondrites found in New Zealand.

Ian Collins, Lincoln