Researchers have expanded the synthetic toolkit for preparing valuable chemical precursors from renewable feedstocks. They used microwave irradiation to dramatically improve the selectivity of the ...

Prebiotic possibilities for the synthesis of interstellar ribose through a protic variant of the formose reaction under gas-phase conditions were studied in the absence of any known catalyst. The ...

During the formose reaction, formaldehyde molecules (red) spontaneously and repeatedly react with each other to create larger molecules. Scripps Research scientists show that this reaction does not ...

Scientists have demonstrated an alternative pathway to life-essential sugars called the glyoxylate scenario, which may push the field of pre-life chemistry past the formose reaction hurdle. For ...

For decades, chemists considered a chemical pathway known as the formose reaction the only route for producing sugars essential for life to begin, but more recent research has called into question the ...

The question of life's origin on Earth continues to surprise. A new study challenges an old idea: that a chemical reaction called the formose reaction could have created the first sugars necessary for ...

New experiments strengthen a theory about how sugars could have formed on early Earth (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja211383c). This set of reactions could help uncover the nucleic acid predecessor ...

Small sugar molecules produced by an autocatalytic reaction cycle confined inside vesicle-based 'artificial cells' can trigger a response in living bacterial cells. You have full access to this ...

Osaka, Japan – Much of what the chemicals industry produces, except for metals, is derived from fossil resources. Using renewable biomass and even one-carbon sources—such as formaldehyde—is necessary ...