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April 11, 2011

The Source Of Life On Earth - A Poisonous Substance ?

 A new study shows that formaldehyde, a poisonous chemical, could be one of the factors that led to the creation of organic compounds that gave rise to life. 

Formaldehyde formed from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is a common molecule found in the Solar System. This chemical compound is commonly used on Earth in conservation actions such as anointing or biological samples. 

The organic molecules, in the composition of which is carbon is found, are found in solid forms on asteroids and comets. Scientists have been puzzled by the source of these organic molecules, professionals wanting to understand how they occurred. The answer they found recently is that they probably were created from formaldehyde in the primitive Solar System. 

George Cody and his co-researchers, Conel Alexander and Larry Nittler Carnegie at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, studied the carbon content of the meteorites to obtain information on the original organic compounds. "It is ironic that it is very likely that life appeared to be due to formaldehyde, a substance that is poisonous to living organisms on Earth," they said. 

To test the hypothesis that formaldehyde was the origin of life, scientists have developed a chemical process to produce organic compounds with formaldehyde as a starting point. They left the reaction to proceed, then the results are analyzed. 

Organic molecules obtained in the laboratory showed a striking resemblance to those found in meteorites and other organic material collected in the solar system (samples collected from comet 81P/Wild 2, interplanetary dust particles and other asteroids or comets). 

From the knowledge gained from research our primitive solar system, it appears that the chemical reaction produced in the laboratory may explain how organic compounds from outer space occurred naturally.

This study was published online on April 4, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



14 comments:

Marian said...

Interesting. where did you get the fact from?

Irisma said...

From Fox News.

Remi said...

Fox News is wrong a lot of the time, but idk, I've never heard of this before

Irisma said...

http://carnegiescience.edu/news/formaldehyde_poison_could_have_set_stage_origins_life heres some more info from a more valid news source

Admin said...

Nice, but maybe not all copy pasted next time?

­­ wang said...

my organic chem lecturer mentioned this

Scott said...

With the scale of time evolution has, I have little doubt that most of the things that used to be beneficial are now poisonous.

BennyBeatz said...

hmm interesting, never looked at it that way but that was still interesting

Cloud said...

interesting post, live is possible thanks a toxic substance, it's a paradox!

Aamir Muhammad said...

very interesting i only thought it was used by serial killers to preserve the bodies.

Drew said...

1,000 years from now we're still not going to know everything. The mystery is certainly very interesting though, like one long novel, unraveling chapter by chapter, and every time you think you know who did it, think again.
Followed!

John said...

So many different theories as to how we came to be.

Alexandra said...

hmmm.. i dont know.. but still interesting read! thanks :-)

Mike said...

I have heard this theory of the origination of life on Earth. It seems plausible that over millions of years comets and asteroids could have brought organic molecules to our planet.

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