Phosphorus is a crucial component of life; it is found in DNA, RNA, the energy carrier ATP, and elsewhere. Although phosphorus is abundant on Earth in the form of minerals, it is still unknown where the chemically reactive phosphorus compounds required for the first steps in the emergence of life even came from. “This so-called ‘phosphorus enigma’ is one of the central, unresolved questions about the origin of life,” says Dr. André K. Eckhardt, a chemist at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany and member of RESOLV.
In his project 31PIRATE, he aims to determine whether the compounds may have come from space. The European Research Council is supporting his research with an ERC Starting Grant of almost 2 million euros over a period of five years.