The radiolysis of carbonates (CO32-), studied in the Radiochemistry team of the SUBATECH laboratory and using the irradiation beam of the Arronax cyclotron in collaboration with the ISTerre laboratory, has proved to be the explanation for the origin of life on Earth? Indeed, the radiolysis of carbonate ions produced the organic matter necessary for the development of life on Earth, thus allowing the transition from an inorganic world to an organic world.
This work, the result of a collaboration with Laurent Truche, a geochemist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Grenoble Alpes, led at Subatech by Johan Vandenborre, a CNRS research fellow, is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
On the same subject, an article was published in Quanta Magazine for which Johan Vandenborre, Laurent Truche and Bénédicte Menez, geobioligist at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris, were interviewed.
Read article --- > https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
Quanta Magazine Podcast ----> https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2021/08/quanta-169_Radioactive-Life_FINAL.mp3
Radiolyse Subatech from left to right: Johan Vandenborre (researcher - manager team),
Guillaume Blain (engineer), Vincent Fiegel (postdoc),
Emeline Craff (PhD student), Simon Guillonneau (trainee Master 2)