AI Summary

Scientists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf discovered that phosphite and palladium, which naturally occur in hydrogen‑producing hydrothermal vents, can act as an inorganic precursor to ATP. The study, published in The FEBS Journal, shows that these vent‑derived substances could have supplied the energy needed for early chemical reactions that led to metabolism. By converting environmental energy into ATP, these compounds would have enabled primitive life forms to drive essential metabolic processes. The finding suggests that hydrothermal vent chemistry may have provided the first usable energy currency for life on Earth.

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