Formaldehyde: poison could have set the stage for the origins of life

Formaldehyde, a poison and a common molecule throughout the universe, is likely the source of the solar system's organic carbon solids - abundant in both comets and asteroids.

Scientists have long speculated about the how organic, or carbon-containing, material became a part of the solar system's fabric.

New research from Carnegie's George Cody, along with Conel Alexander and Larry Nittler, shows that these complex organic solids were likely made from formaldehyde in the primitive solar system.

Their work is published online April 4 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

''We may owe our existence on this planet to interstellar formaldehyde,'' Cody said. ''And what's ironic about it is that formaldehyde is poisonous to life on Earth.''

During the early period of the inner solar system's formation, much of the organic carbon that wasn't trapped in primitive bodies was lost to space, along with much of the water.