Toxic Gas May Have Sparked Life on Earth Through Icy ‘Cobweb’ Crystals
Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology suggest that frozen hydrogen cyanide may have helped trigger the chemistry that led to life on Earth. Their simulations show HCN forming cobweb-like ice crystals whose reactive surfaces enable unusual chemical reactions even in extreme cold. These processes could generate amino acids, nucleobases and other essential building blocks of life, pointing to possible prebiotic chemistry on icy worlds beyond Earth.
