ArticleCommunications earth & environment2024
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Generation of long-chain fatty acids by hydrogen-driven bicarbonate reduction in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents.
Article in Communications earth & environment, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It has been retracted, and should not be counted. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Carboxyl-directed, general α-site-selective deuteration of carboxylic acids by PdNature communications · 2026Article
- On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms.eLife · 2026Article
- Chemiosmotic ATP synthesis by minimal protocells.Cell reports. Physical science · 2025Article
- The Winding Road from Origin to Emergence (of Life).Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
- Retracted
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of life required membrane-bound compartments to allow the separation and concentration of internal biochemistry from the external environment and establish energy-harnessing ion gradients. Long-chain amphiphilic molecules, such as fatty acids, appear strong candidates to have formed the first cell membranes although how they were first generated remains unclear. Here we show that the reaction of dissolved hydrogen and bicarbonate with the iron-rich mineral magnetite under conditions of continuous flow, alkaline pH and relatively low temperatures (90 °C) generate a range of functionalised long-chain aliphatic compounds, including mixed fatty acids up to 18 carbon atoms in length. Readily generated membrane-forming amphiphilic organic molecules in the first cellular life may have been driven by similar chemistry generated from the mixing of bicarbonate-rich water (equilibrated with a carbon dioxide-enriched atmosphere) with alkaline hydrogen-rich fluids fed by the serpentinisation of the Earth's iron-rich early crust.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.