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Cover Picture: Darwin's Warm Little Pond: A One‐Pot Reaction for Prebiotic Phosphorylation and the Mobilization of Phosphate from Minerals in a Urea‐Based Solvent (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42/2016)
Author(s) -
Burcar Bradley,
Pasek Matthew,
Gull Maheen,
Cafferty Brian J.,
Velasco Francisco,
Hud Nicholas V.,
MenorSalván César
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201607773
Subject(s) - chemistry , urea , phosphate , ammonium formate , inorganic chemistry , apatite , chemical engineering , nuclear chemistry , organic chemistry , mineralogy , acetonitrile , engineering
In 1871, Charles Darwin envisioned the spontaneous formation of biological molecules “in some warm little pond with all sort of ammonia and phosphoric salts”. C. Menor‐Salván, N. V. Hud, and co‐workers tested the feasibility of this prebiotic scenario as described in their Communication on page 13249 ff. When a solution containing ammonium formate, urea, and epsomite (the magnesium sulfate crystals shown) was heated, a eutectic was produced that liberated phosphate from insoluble apatite, leading to nucleoside phosphorylation.