A Precursor Piece to DNA Was Found in Star Material

Auden’s cosmic touch also comes through in the star-centered poem “The More Loving One,” a sort of stoic reflection on the life-giving importance of stars, their indifference to us, and the human penchant to take their powers for granted:

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

But on earth indifference is the least

We have to dread from man or beast. Stars, of course, not only sustain life, by showering planet Earth in photons, but also can contain, in their protostellar (or very young) form, a precursor material of life: a molecule called glycolonitrile. The study’s lead author, Shaoshan Zeng, a research student at Queen Mary University of London, said in a press release, “We have shown that this important pre-biotic molecule can be formed in the material from which stars and planets emerge, taking us a step closer to identifying the processes that may have led to the origin of life on Earth.”

Source: nautil.us