So this is
sodium cyanide, highly toxic,
but we use this material
for our research
on the origin of life.
Cyanide is deadly.
As little
as a tenth of a gram can be fatal.
John´s colleague Jiangfeng Xu,
has been working with it
for over a decade.
Just keep gloves on,
don´t eat it,
that's for sure.
Mixing the cyanide isn't enough.
It then
has to be exposed
to the conditions of early Earth.
I'm going to put this
in the solar simulator.
This machine,
to simulate the Earth conditions.
Levels of UV light were much higher back then.
UV light is the energy used
to drive the reaction
and its free energy from the sun.
And we're going to use it
inside the machine.
The cyanide combines and recombines
creating the building blocks of life.
After a few hours, we can
detect amino acid, mucosal precursor
lipid precursor.
They're all very important
biomolecules in life.
Cyanide may be the raw
material needed to kick start life.
So finding an abundant supply
is vital for John and Jiangfeng's theory.
And one type of location
is more promising than any other.
Impact craters.
As a meteorite strikes, it's energy
super heats the atmosphere,
generating huge amounts of cyanide,
and it also melts the planet's crust,
creating hydrothermal systems.
The meter impacts really important
for life to start.
John and Jiangfeng's idea
is that rainwater
flowed down the crater walls,
absorbing cyanide and then was heated
in hydrothermal pools at the bottom.
And reaction taking place then,
so simple.
To prove their theory.
John and Jiangfeng need evidence,
chemical traces from one of these craters.
On earth.
It's simply
not possible to find evidence
of these environments
because all of the impact
craters of that period
have been erased by plate tectonics.
Scientists still don't understand
how life began on Earth,
but they do have three theories about how
and where it might have happened.
Hydrothermal vents
with chemical energy for early life.
Volcanic pools
could have assembled cells,
and impact craters could have provided
the raw material for life.
But here on Earth,
essential clues
to solve the mystery
have long been erased,
to find them,
scientists need to return
to Mars.