Rethinking the origins of life

A study suggests that cometary impact would have produced ‘prebiotic’ building blocks of life.

Scientists have shown a new way in which the building blocks of life could have been created on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system.

They fired ultra-fast projectiles into an icy mixture simulating a comet. The shockwave caused chemical reactions that produced “prebiotic” life-building compounds including amino acids, which make up proteins.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/40cba76c-257b-11e3-b349-00144feab7de.html