Scientists, including one of have proposed a new set of cosmic chemical reactions involving methanol that may have led to the creation of the first building blocks of life on Earth.
How life began is one of the most fundamental questions scientists puzzle over. To address it, they have to look not just back to the primordial Earth, but out into space. Through experiments and calcu-lations, the scientists, including Surya Prakash of University of Southern California, demonstrated that methanol can give rise to varied hydrocarbons, their deriv-atives and products, including their ions (carbocations and carbanions), which have been observed in outer space.The scientists believe that when these hydrocarbons and other products were transported to Earth by asteroids or comets, they continued to evolve in the planet’s unique “goldilocks” conditions - liquid water, a breathable atmos-phere and moderate temperatures - ultimately leading to life.