Part II: Three Minerals and Water: The Engine of Life

Life did not invent its engine. It inherited one from iron, sulfur, aluminum, and water.

By Pierre Kory and Matt Bakos

ACT IV: Iron-Sulfur-Aluminum-Water (ISAW) — The Elemental Division of Labor

Here, we establish the universal logic of energy generation by identifying the specific elements that execute the critical functions that comprise ISAW, the recursive engine of life.

Electron Flow — The Role of Iron

A critical aspect is that iron–sulfur redox systems embedded in rock represent Earth’s earliest self-sustaining, distributive energy architecture. However, that architecture would have remained in rock if it were not for the contributions of water. Water serves as the continuity layer through which this redox logic was then inherited by biology, enabling its incorporation into proteins, mitochondria, cells, and organisms.

Iron stands out among all the elements due to its exceptional redox flexibility: the ability to donate electrons when needed and accept electrons again when conditions change. Energy generation depends on continuous cycling. A battery that only allows elec…