NASA Study Reveals Early Life on Earth Depended on Scarce Metal Molybdenum
NASA-funded research has uncovered that early life on Earth, dating back over 3 billion years, relied on the metal molybdenum, despite its scarcity at the time. Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals that molybdenum was used by ancient life forms to catalyze essential biochemical reactions. This discovery challenges previous assumptions that life initially used other metals like tungsten before transitioning to molybdenum. The research highlights the role of molybdenum in driving major biological processes and its importance in biogeochemical cycles. The study also suggests that early life forms found ways to utilize molybdenum even when it was not abundantly available, indicating its critical role in the evolution of life. 
