How Sugar from Outer Space Became One of the Backbones of Life on Earth

Is there life elsewhere, or is Earth unique in the universe? This is one of humanity’s great unanswered questions.

One way to approach this mystery is to investigate how life began here on Earth. Our research explores the conditions where a mixture of molecules somehow transformed from chemistry into biology.

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, we shed new light on one possible step in this process: how a fragile sugar from outer space may have helped create the conditions for its own survival on Earth, where it eventually became the backbone of one of life’s most important molecules.

The post How Sugar from Outer Space Became One of the Backbones of Life on Earth appeared first on Nautilus.