Large deep-sea zooplankton biomass mirrors primary production in the global ocean.

The biological pump transports organic carbon produced by photosynthesis to the meso- and bathypelagic zones, the latter removing carbon from exchanging with the atmosphere over centennial time scales. Organisms living in both zones are supported by a passive flux of particles, and carbon transported to the deep-sea through vertical zooplankton migrations. Here we report globally-coherent positive relationships between zooplankton biomass in the epi-, meso-, and bathypelagic layers and average net primary production (NPP).

Synthesis of large-pore zeolites from chiral structure-directing agents with two l-prolinol units.

In this work, we perform an in-depth experimental and computational study about the structure-directing effect of two new chiral organic quaternary ammonium dications bearing two N-methyl-prolinol units linked by a xylene spacer in para or meta relative orientation, displaying four enantiopure stereogenic centers in (S) configuration. Synthesis results show that the para-xylene derivative is an efficient structure-directing agent, promoting the crystallization of ZSM-12 (in pure-silica composition), beta zeolite (as pure-silica, or in the presence of Al or Ge), and a mixture of polymorphs C, A and B of zeolite beta (in the presence of Ge). In contrast, the meta-xylene derivative showed a much poorer structure-directing activity, yielding only amorphous materials unless Ge is present in the gel, where beta and polymorph C (together with A and B) zeolites crystallized.

Prebiotic chemistry in neutral/reduced-alkaline gas-liquid interfaces.

The conditions for the potential abiotic formation of organic compounds from inorganic precursors have great implications for our understanding of the origin of life on Earth and for its possible detection in other environments of the Solar System. It is known that aerosol-interfaces are effective at enhancing prebiotic chemical reactions, but the roles of salinity and pH have been poorly investigated to date. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the uniqueness of alkaline aerosols as prebiotic reactors that produce an undifferentiated accumulation of a variety of multi-carbon biomolecules resulting from high-energy processes (in our case, electrical discharges).

The Role of Aqueous Aerosols in the "Glyoxylate Scenario": An Experimental Approach.

The origin of life is one of the fundamental questions in science. Eschenmoser proposed the "glyoxylate scenario", in which plausible abiotic synthesis pathways were suggested to be compatible with the constraints of prebiotic chemistry. In this proposal, the stem compound is HCN.

A Prebiotic Synthesis of Pterins.

The genesis of life on Earth is a hypothesis of evolutionary science that can be, at least partially, tested experimentally. The prebiotic synthesis of cofactors or coenzymes is a poorly explored issue, likely because their formation under plausible prebiotic conditions is not clear. In this sense, it has been proposed that the cofactors are "molecular fossils" of an early phase of life.