The cold origin of life: A. Implications based on the hydrolytic stabilities of hydrogen cyanide and formamide.

It has been suggested that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) would not have been present in sufficient concentration to polymerize in the primitive ocean to produce nucleic acid bases and amino acids. We have measured the hydrolysis rates of HCN and formamide over the range of 30-150 degrees C and pH 0-14, and estimated the steady state concentrations in the primitive ocean. At 100 degrees C and pH 8, the steady state concentration of HCN and formamide were calculated to be 7 x 10(-13) M and 1 x 10(-15) M, respectively. Thus, it seems unlikely that HCN could have polymerized in a warm primitive ocean. It is suggested that eutectic freezing might have been required to have concentrated HCN sufficiantly for it to polymerize. If the HCN polymerization was important for the origin of life, some regions of the primitive earth might have been frozen.