Lifeboat Foundation

Early Formation of Life’s Building Blocks

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Astronomy has revealed that amino acids, essential for life, can form in dark interstellar clouds long before stars and planets emerge. Glycine, the simplest amino acid, was shown to form on the surface of icy dust grains in cold, energy-deprived environments through a process called “dark chemistry.” These findings challenge the long-standing belief that UV radiation was required to create glycine, significantly expanding our understanding of how life’s precursors emerge in space.