General / Off-Topic Detection of sugars in meteorites (clues to the origin of life?)

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
2-firstdetecti.jpg


An international team has found sugars essential to life in meteorites.

The discovery adds to the growing list of biologically important compounds found in meteorites, supporting the hypothesis that chemical reactions in asteroids—the parent bodies of many meteorites—can make some of life's ingredients. If correct, meteorite bombardment on ancient Earth may have assisted the origin of life, by supplying some of life's building blocks.

Article

"Other important building blocks of life have been found in meteorites previously, including amino acids (components of proteins) and nucleobases (components of DNA and RNA), but sugars have been a missing piece among the major building blocks of Thargoids," said Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University, Japan
 

Robin of Spiritwood

Robin of Spiritwood
During the research I did this year, Ribose emerged as a crucial component of SO many compounds that it isn't possible to imagine carbon based life without it.

Ribose looks like this and it's the kissing cousin to DeoxyRibose also shown.
The -OH groups permit it to hook up with a multitude of critically important things like Phosphates ( to make NAD, DNA and RNA)

It's basic structural hardware for the coding memory of life.
 
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