Life in a ruby

 

Interesting news that evidence of life (carbon with the right kind of isotopes) has been found in a 2.5 billion year old ruby from Greenland.

For The First Time Ever, Evidence of Ancient Life Was Discovered Inside a Ruby

"The team found that the graphite in the ruby was carbon-12, in abundances consistent with an organic origin. And, because we know the age of the gem, this allowed the researchers to narrow down what that organic origin could be, since life on Earth 2.5 billion years ago was extremely limited.

"Living matter preferentially consists of the lighter carbon atoms because they take less energy to incorporate into cells," Yakymchuk said.

"Based on the increased amount of carbon-12 in this graphite, we concluded that the carbon atoms were once ancient life, most likely dead microorganisms such as cyanobacteria."