For decades, scientists have tried to decipher how the first ways of life on earth began. One of the most enigmatic pieces of this puzzle is the origin of metabolism, that complex system of chemical reactions that allows organisms to transform matter into energy.
A new discovery could radically change what we knew so far: the central molecules for these vital processes would not have been born on our planet, but in the deep space, long before the earth existed. An investigation by the Department of Chemistry of the University of Hawaii in Mānoa managed to recreate in the laboratory the extreme conditions of interstellar space. They did it within the WM Keck astrocatismic research laboratory, where they simulated the environment of the dense molecular clouds that float between the stars.
These environments, cold and dark, have temperatures close to absolute zero and are constantly crossed by cosmic rays. When freezing simple gases, exposing them to galactic radiation and then applying a gradual warming, scientists achieved something that had never been observed before: the formation of the complete carboxylic acid set that make up the Krebs cycle.
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