DISSOLVED silicon may have played a vital role in helping the first bacteria take hold on Earth.
Before life became common, key nutrients such as organic carbon would have been rare, raising the question of how early bacteria managed to multiply.
To see how bacteria would fare under nutrient-poor conditions, Milton Wainwright of the University of Sheffield, UK, and colleagues cultured soil samples with ultra-pure water. The bacteria survived, but barely multiplied. However, adding hydrated silica produced much higher bacterial counts. Silicon compounds were abundant on the young Earth, so Wainwright suggests that the first bacteria fed on them (International…
