Much is unknown about the transition from a prebiotic Earth to an Earth with life, although many studies have heightened our understanding of prebiotic chemistry. Here, a prebiotic soup was prepared with a chemical makeup based on the concentrations of chemicals found in meteorites (1) and evolved through several wet-dry cycles. Soup samples were prepared and evolved in different environments with different salt concentrations, pH, and rehydration solution. The evolved soup samples were analyzed through principal component analysis on data gathered from IR spectra, HPLC chromatograms, as well as several assays. Using principal component analysis, the soups were determined to have evolved, and salt was found to be a large source of variation.

Evaluation of chemical evolution using prinicpal component analysis

ACS Spring 2022

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