A discovery by scientists at Scripps Research and the Georgia Institute of Technology could shed light on the evolution of life on Earth and pave the way for more efficient biofuel production.

Early Earth was a volatile and inhospitable place, marked by extreme temperatures, widespread volcanic activity, and a thin, primitive atmosphere. Yet somehow, the basic molecular components of life, such as sugars, amino acids, and nucleotides, emerged from this chaos. One long-standing theory among chemists holds that ribose, a sugar that forms the structural backbone of RNA, arose spontaneously through a chemical process. However, new research challenges this idea.