BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / Ice and the origins of life on Earth

Introduction

The James Webb Space Telescope recently detected the coldest ices ever in outer space, something Nasa scientists think could explain the origins of life on Earth. Sam and Neil talk about science and teach you related vocabulary.

This week's question

We know ice is frozen water, but do you know the chemical symbol for water?

a) H2O

b) HO2

c) H2O2

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

primordial soup
environment on Earth before there were any plants or animals, and which formed the conditions for life

building blocks of life
most basic biological and chemical units capable of ing living plants and animals

comet
large object made of dirt and ice travelling around the sun with a bright, burning tail

lightning
flash of bright light produced by electricity moving in the atmosphere

organic
relating to living plants and animals; food grown without the use of artificial chemicals

chain reaction
series of chemical reactions in which one change causes another, which in turn, causes another

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Sam
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.

Neil
And I’m Neil.

Sam
Have you ever made a snowman or enjoyed a cold drink on a hot summer’s day? Slippery in winter and cooling in summer, ice is made when water gets so cold it freezes. But there’s much more to ice than skiing holidays and cold drinks.

Neil
Yes, in an exciting discovery, the James Webb Space Telescope recently detected the coldest ices ever in outer space, something Nasa scientists think could explain the origins of life on Earth.

Sam
For years scientists have debated how life started on our planet. Billions of years ago, long before the dinosaurs, animals or even plants existed, the Earth had a watery environment of oxygen-free gases and chemicals known as the primordial soup. It had the potential for life to develop, but something was missing.

Neil
So how did we jump from the primordial soup to the first living plants, animals, and eventually humans? And how does ice fit into the story? That’s what we’ll be finding out in this programme, and as usual, we’ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

Sam
But first I have a question for you, Neil. We know ice is frozen water, but do you know the chemical symbol for water? Is it:
a)    H2O ?
b)    HO2 ? or
c)    H2O2 ?

Neil
Well, I really hope I get this right. I think the answer is H2O.

Sam
OK. We’ll find out or check if you’re right later in the programme. Astronomer, Professor Melissa McClure, worked with the Nasa scientists who found ice on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Here she explains to BBC World Service programme, Science in Action, one theory linking ice to the beginnings of life on Earth.

Professor Melissa McClure
There's sort of these two alternatives for how you could have had life arise on Earth, and one is that the very basic building blocks, like water, and methane, and CO2 – like, those molecules were definitely brought to Earth by ices in comets, and maybe once they were on Earth, then they reacted with either geothermal heat or some kind of lightning strike to form more complex molecules.

Neil
Earth’s primordial soup lacked the building blocks of life – a phrase describing the most basic biological and chemical units needed to living things, elements like oxygen and carbon.

Sam
Professor McClure thinks these missing elements were brought to Earth in comets - large bright balls of dirt and ice which travel around the Sun in outer space.

Neil
It’s possible that when comets hit Earth billions of years ago, elements in the ice were scattered and struck by lightning – a bright flash of light produced by electricity moving in the atmosphere. This resulted in the complex molecules needed for life on Earth.

Sam
Exactly how this happened is not known, but it involves biomolecules, molecules like DNA which are found in living things. Ice is not a biomolecule, but when it mixes with carbon, the atoms in ice molecules change to produce complex molecules – and that’s when interesting things start to happen. Here’s Professor McClure again, explaining more to BBC World Service’s, Science in Action.

Professor Melissa McClure
If they have a carbon atom in them then they’re complex organic molecules, so things like very simple alcohols like methanol or ethanol, like what you would drink, are complex organic molecules. And these molecules could react and start a sort of a reaction chain that would eventually lead to something like a biomolecule.

Neil
Ice can react with other elements to create organic molecules, for example the alcohol, methanol. Here, the adjective organic means related to living plants and animals. That’s different from how we use the word to talk about ‘organic food’, meaning food that hasn’t been grown using artificial chemicals.

Sam
When these organic molecules met the primordial soup - so the theory goes - it produced a chain reaction – a series of chemical reactions in which one change causes another. It was this chain reaction which created the first living cells and eventually, humans. Quite impressive for a little piece of frozen water!

Neil
Speaking of water, Sam, what was the answer to your question about the chemical symbol for water? I said it was H2O.

Sam
Which was the right answer, Neil! Each molecule of water, and ice, contains two atoms of H, that’s hydrogen, ed to one atom of oxygen. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned from the programme, starting with primordial soup – the environment on Earth before there were any plants or animals, which created the conditions for life.

Neil
The phrase the building blocks of life refers to the most basic biological and chemical units needed to living plants and animals.

Sam
A comet is a large object travelling in space which orbits the sun and has a bright, burning tail.

Neil
Lightning is a flash of bright light produced by electricity moving in the atmosphere.

Sam
The adjective organic means relating to living plants and animals. And ‘organic food’ means food which has been grown without using chemicals.

Neil
And finally, a chain reaction is a series of chemical reactions in which one change causes another, which in turn, causes another. Once again, our six minutes are up. Goodbye!

Sam
Bye bye!