Phosphorus for Us
Phosphorus is one of those elements that has both negative and positive associations. When refined, it can be obtained in various forms. White phosphorus is exceptionally dangerous, and reacts to oxygen in the air. The stuff explodes (and is used in bombs), gives off smoke, burns exceptionally hot, is stored under water for safety, and can kill in several ways.
From the positive side, we need phosphorus. Life needs it. When looking for a video to add, I saw (but rejected because it was boring) a video about foods rich in it. Plants draw phosphorus up from the soil. It is in our cells, which rely on phosphorus to do cell stuff.
And yet, phosphorus doesn't just lay around waiting for some jasper to say, "Oh, look! I found phosphorus in its elemental state!" That'll be the day! It is abundant in the earth's crust and can be extracted from living (or formerly living) things, such as guano.
How did it get there?
Uniformitarian geologists have no clue, and space scientists are making up wild stories to file under "Maybe Coulda". Well, maybe their invisible imaginary space alien friends brought it to Earth when they seeded it with life. Hey, I should be a secular science writer! Anyway, the fact remains that scientists have to resort to speculations, and ignore the logical conclusion that our Creator designed Earth to have enough of what we need to survive. Savvy?
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| Mining phosphate rock in Naru Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Lorrie Graham/AusAID (CC BY 2.0) |
And yet, phosphorus doesn't just lay around waiting for some jasper to say, "Oh, look! I found phosphorus in its elemental state!" That'll be the day! It is abundant in the earth's crust and can be extracted from living (or formerly living) things, such as guano.
How did it get there?
Uniformitarian geologists have no clue, and space scientists are making up wild stories to file under "Maybe Coulda". Well, maybe their invisible imaginary space alien friends brought it to Earth when they seeded it with life. Hey, I should be a secular science writer! Anyway, the fact remains that scientists have to resort to speculations, and ignore the logical conclusion that our Creator designed Earth to have enough of what we need to survive. Savvy?
A highly reactive atom, phosphorus is never found in its elemental form on earth. Its elemental abundance is one gram per kilogram in Earth’s crust, about 16 times as plentiful as copper. On our planet, most of it is found in insoluble rocks. Phosphate mines have much of the element from the decomposed remains of living organisms.To read the entire article, click on "How Did Earth Get Its Phosphorus?"
It would be hard to imagine a habitable planet without phosphorus, because most astrobiologists recognize the uniqueness of nucleic acids, ATP and phospholipids for cells. So this poses a question: how did Earth become blessed with so much of this element?