Sentences with phrase «amino nitriles»

They found that organic compounds, called amino nitriles, the molecular precursors to amino acids, were able to use molecules present in interstellar ice to trigger the formation of the backbone molecule, 2 - deoxy - D - ribose, of DNA.

The research team showed that amino nitriles could have been the catalyst for bringing together the interstellar molecules, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glycolaldehyde, before life on Earth began.