[JACS] Carbonaceous solids with pores in the nanometer domain are of great technological importance owing to their amenability to sorption/separation, catalysis, and electrochemical applications.
organic chemistry
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics
Autonomous Multi-Agent Reconstruction of Prebiotic Reaction Networks Reveals Organizational Features of Amino Acid Synthesis
[chemrxiv.org] Decades of origin-of-life research have uncovered hundreds of prebiotically plausible reactions across hydrothermal, surface, and biochemical environments, yet this knowledge remains fragmented across chemistry, geochemistry, and astrobiology. Here we […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Molecular Assembly As A Universal Biosignature Measurable By Mass Spectrometry
[PNAS] Detecting life beyond Earth requires biosignatures that do not depend on the chemistry of known organisms.
![Chemical structure of the aromatic nitriles cyanobenzene, d5-cyanobenzene, 1,2-dicyanobenzene, 1,3- dicyanobenzene and 1,4-dicyanobenzene -- [astro-ph.SR]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Infrared.png?resize=1200%2C714&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Infrared Spectroscopy and Photochemistry of Aromatic Nitriles in Para-Hydrogen Matrices
[astro-ph.SR] Motivated by recent detections of several aromatic nitriles in Taurus Molecular Cloud-1, we report laboratory and theoretical investigations of the vibrational spectroscopy and photochemistry of singly and doubly cyano-substituted […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
First Detection Of C2H+ In The Interstellar Medium
[astro-ph.GA] Despite the detection of nearly 350 molecules in the interstellar medium, almost half of which are carbon chains, the pathways that build molecular complexity remain poorly understood.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Photochemistry Of Interstellar Ice Forming Complex Organic Molecules
[astro-ph.GA] Astrochemistry is a well-established multidisciplinary field devoted to study molecules in space. While most astrochemists are oriented to observe molecules in the gas phase and reproduce their abundances by […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Biosignature Reservoirs In The Rozel Point Tar Seeps At Great Salt Lake, Utah
[Frontiers in Microbiology] On the north shore of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA, naturally occurring tar seeps at Rozel Point provide an opportunity to study a petroleum-rich environment adjacent to […]
![Bold black letters illustrate amino acids that are deduced as early by the approach, while red letters indicate late additions to the alphabet according to the approach (C* implies possible prebiotic synthesis under specific and narrow conditions [4]). Regular black letters represent amino acids that have not been resolved as either early or late by the approach. LUCA: last universal common ancestor; LECA: last eukaryotic common ancestor; rTCA: tricarboxylic acid cycle. -- Trends in Genetics](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Reconstructing.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Reconstructing Ancient Protein Alphabets: What Can We Truly Infer?
[Trends in Genetics] The canonical amino acid alphabet has remained remarkably stable since life’s early stages, yet the factors that shaped its emergence remain debated. Early views emphasized prebiotic availability […]
![Proposed reaction network for the radiolysis of PCN:N2 ice by 40 MeV 40Ar9+ ions at 10 K. The scheme summarizes the main fragmentation, radical recombination, isomerization, and nitrogen incorporation pathways inferred from the infrared identifications and kinetic analysis. The radicals shown in the "Primary fragmentation" box are representative examples of how reactive intermediates are inferred from the experimental results and do not constitute an exhaustive list of all fragments produced during irradiation. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Formation.png?resize=1200%2C706&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Formation Of Nitriles And Isonitriles By The Heavy-ion Irradiation Of Propionitrile In N2-rich Astrophysical Ices
[astro-ph.EP] Context. Nitriles are key nitrogen-bearing organic molecules in dense clouds, star-forming regions, and nitrogen-rich icy environments. Understanding their stability and chemical evolution under energetic processing is essential for understanding […]
Posted inComets and Asteroids
A JWST Study of Stardust. I. Infrared Spectroscopy of Comet 81P/Wild 2 and Overall Composition
[astro-ph.EP] We report observations of comet 81P/Wild 2, target of the Stardust sample return mission, on UT 2023 March 20 and 24 at a heliocentric distance (rH) of 1.85 au […]