{"id":212233,"date":"2025-04-23T14:33:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/scientists-recreate-deep-space-chemistry-linked-to-first-metabolic-systems-on-earth"},"modified":"2025-04-23T14:33:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:33:40","slug":"scientists-recreate-deep-space-chemistry-linked-to-first-metabolic-systems-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/scientists-recreate-deep-space-chemistry-linked-to-first-metabolic-systems-on-earth","title":{"rendered":"Scientists recreate deep space chemistry linked to first metabolic systems on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-recreate-deep-space-chemistry-linked-to-first-metabolic-systems-on-earth.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Prebiotic molecules central to life\u2019s earliest metabolic processes\u2014chemical reactions in cells that change food into energy\u2014may have been born in deep space long before Earth existed, according to new research from the University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa Department of Chemistry.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists in the W. M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry have recreated the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/extreme+conditions\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">extreme conditions<\/a> found in dense interstellar clouds and discovered a way for the complete set of complex carboxylic acids\u2014critical ingredients in modern metabolism\u2014to form without life on timescales equivalent to a few million years.<\/p>\n<p>The study, published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2501839122\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i><\/a>, focused on molecules such as those in the Krebs cycle, a fundamental metabolic pathway used by nearly all living organisms. These molecules, which help break down nutrients to release energy, may have <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/cosmic+origins\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">cosmic origins<\/a>, forming in the icy, low-temperature environments of interstellar space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prebiotic molecules central to life\u2019s earliest metabolic processes\u2014chemical reactions in cells that change food into energy\u2014may have been born in deep space long before Earth existed, according to new research from the University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa Department of Chemistry. Scientists in the W. M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry have recreated the extreme conditions [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,1506,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-chemistry","category-food","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}