What made Earth the planet that life chose? It's a question scientists have wrestled with for decades, and the answers are rarely simple. Distance from the Sun matters, liquid water matters and a magnetic field that deflects lethal radiation matters. But a new study published in the journal Terra Nova adds something unexpected to that list…. the slow, geological rise of the continents themselves, and a semi precious gemstone most people know from jewellery shops. Hydrothermal vents like this one found in the Atlantic Ocean seem to be teeming with life. (Credit : P. Rona / OAR/National Undersea Research Program) The key ingredient in question is boron. Scientists have long suspected that boron played a crucial role in the origins of life, because it helps stabilise the fragile sugar molecules needed to build RNA, the molecule thought to have come before DNA in life's earliest chemistry. But boron is finicky since it operates within a remarkably narrow window.…