Today, the colorless and deadly gas cyanide is known as a fast-acting poison and a chemical weapon. Four billion years ago, however, it may have been a harbinger of life. Chemists at Scripps Research have shown for the first time how cyanide could have enabled some of the earliest metabolic reactions to create carbon-based compounds from carbon dioxide. In addition to better understanding the evolution of life on Earth, this discovery gives scientists insight into the potential chemistry of life on other planets.
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Source: Phys.org