Initially the micron-sized remains found deep in the rust-coloured rocks of the Pilbara in northwestern Australia made scientists specialising in the origins of life very excited. Now it is more likely to make them confused.
The region is one of the last pristine relics from the earliest era of the Earth's crust, when the elements coalesced 2.7 billion years ago to become what is postulated to be the world's original supercontinent, known as Vaalbara.
It was what was inside the ancient shale of the Pilbara that excited researchers, who found the remnants of primitive algae, demonstrating that the oldest known proof of photosynthesis - and by extension, life on Earth - was more than 550 million years earlier than previously thought.
But last month, the science journal Nature revealed that better methods of analysis had cast doubt on the veracity of the original findings, which were published nearly 10 years ago. Rather than being literally and figuratively set in stone, the chemical biomarkers that signify the existence of the cyanobacteria algae are now suspected of having infiltrated the rock strata after the sediments were laid down.
Even that is disputed, with others interpreting the new findings as potentially consistent with the theory that photosynthesising life forms existed 2.7 billion years ago, even though the Earth was then more than twice as hot as it is today and oxygen, now the second most common element of the atmosphere, did not become present in significant quantities for another 350 million years.
This progression of research to obfuscate rather than clarify is hardly new in science, where one of the recurring themes in any highly theoretical field is for new discoveries to prove that scientists did not know as much as they originally thought they did.
After all, it was only within the last 150 years that science finally extinguished the theory that all life was the result of spontaneous generation. Since the days of Aristotle, it was thought self-evident that maggots appeared spontaneously in meat, aphids from dew on leaves, field mice from hay, and even crocodiles from rotting submerged logs.
The discovery of bacteria was initially held as support for the theory and it took until 1861, when Louis Pasteur showed bacteria and fungi did not appear in nutrient-rich but sterile material, that spontaneous generation theory was finally rejected. But disproving one theory for abiogenesis - the origins of life - did not prove an alternative, and to this day scientists are pursuing a verifiable hypothesis to fill the scientific vacuum.
The irony is that while spontaneous generation has been scotched as an ongoing process, almost all of the theories jostling to replace it rely on a spontaneous generation of life at some point in the distant past when the most basic manifestation of life, in the form of photosynthesis, first took place. The sole dissenting view contends that life arrived via space debris such as a comet's tail.
That is thought to have happened between 3.5 billion to 4.4 billion years ago, relatively soon after the hypothesised formation of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago and in a completely different environment than exists today. In the Hadean era, the first 800 million years of the Earth, temperatures were more than three times as hot as now - hence the name, a derivative of Hades - and the atmosphere had virtually no oxygen.
Although photosynthesis is postulated to have been present in the Hadean era, no compelling proof has been found in the few rocks identified as being of that age. John Olson, a University of Massachusetts biochemist, postulated in 2005 that there were signs in Greenland rock sheets dating back to 3.8 billion years ago, as the Hadean era ended and the Archean era began, of photosynthesis based on hydrogen rather than oxygen because of the latter's absence. His view was bolstered by what he dubbed "possible microfossils" in South African and Australian rocks around 3.4 billion to 3.5 billion years ago.
But the closest to proof remains in the rock samples from the Pilbara, where researchers initially hailed the discovery of chemical biomarkers indicating the presence of photosynthesising life forms 550 million years before the next oldest example.
A conundrum was that the researchers in the late 1990s did not just find biomarkers called hopanes, which prove the presence of simple bacteria. They also found steranes, indicating the presence of more sophisticated cellular life forms that were previously not thought to have existed until a billion years later.
The double conundrum was that the steranes should have been destroyed by the heat and pressure that were evident from the rock samples, while the presence of oxygen-generating cellular life forms was at odds with the near total absence of oxygen in the atmosphere for another 350 million years.
According Birger Rasmussen, a geochemist from Australia's Curtin University of Technology, the solution came from using a far more precise probe that could take carbon-isotopes samples just five microns across, or less than one tenth the width of a human hair.
It showed a far wider discrepancy in the carbon dating than had been found previously, which Dr Rasmussen said in the paper published in Nature indicates that the hopanes and steranes migrated into the Pilbara rocks after they were laid down.
Others dispute his hypothesis as just one explanation of several possible answers.
The Harvard University biochemist Andrew Knoll said in the magazine Science News that studies from South Africa, the only other pristine site with rocks of the same era as the Pilbara, had also detected biomarkers which support the original Pilbara theory.
Jennifer Eigenbrode, an organic geochemist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre, said there were other possibilities for the carbon traces, such as the early organisms absorbing carbon from methane rather than carbon dioxide. Both gases were abundant at the time and the recycling of the carbon within the environment could explain the wider range of carbon-isotope readings of the kind found by Dr Rasmussen's team.
Woodward Fischer, a geochemist at Califronia Institute of Technology, has cautioned that the high-sensitivity microprobes similar to that used for the most recent study of the Pilbara rocks are also susceptible to contamination, with diesel exhausts, fossil fuel emissions and smog - all capable of influencing the presence of hopanes.
In the meantime, what had once been seen as a leap forward in proving the origins of life has reverted to a debate between whether it might instead have been a stumble.
jhenzell@thenational.ae
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
MATCH INFO
Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:
Al Ain 2 Al Duhail 4
Second leg:
Tuesday, Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha. Kick off 7.30pm
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mobile phone packages comparison
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
