A chemical reaction that gives food flavour called the Maillard reaction, could have helped evolution, one study suggests. Caroline Peacock at the University of Leeds explored whether the reaction could happen at lower temperatures. Scientists added iron or manganese minerals to a solution made up of sugar glucose and the amino acid glycine. When the substance was incubated at 10°C, the process was sped up by around 100 times.
Chemical Process
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This reaction also happens on the ocean floor, storing carbon in complex polymers that microbes struggle to break down. This process could have locked away around 4 million tonnes of carbon yearly, potentially preventing a 5°C atmospheric warming over 400 million years and fostering conditions for complex life.
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