Drying-wetting experiments minerals used

A combination of SIPS with the stabilising and synthesis-favouring properties of clay minerals was studied by Rode et al. (1999) in experiments involving dry/wet cycles. The simultaneous use of both SIPS and clay minerals as catalytically active surfaces led to peptides up to and including the hexamer (Gly)6. The question as to whether this technique fulfils prebiotic conditions can (within certain limitations) be answered positively, since periodic evaporation phases in limited areas (lagoons, ponds) are conceivable. The container material could have consisted of clay minerals. Further progress in the area of peptide synthesis under conditions which could have been present on the primeval Earth can be expected. 

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