Children of the Chon: What We Know About Genesis (Science Watch) (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen‪)‬

BACK IN EARLY 2001, scientists at Ames Research Center in California were exploring some of the interesting organic chemistry that was believed to be occurring in the depths of interstellar space. While most of the general public still viewed "outer space" as a cold vacuum, scientists had realized that it had vast quantities of what they called CHON--carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. These elements are the basis for most of the chemical reactions on Earth, including those in all living things. And even if the temperatures in space were near absolute zero, those atoms were being bombarded with energy that covered most of the electromagnetic range, a power source to drive chemical reactions. So the scientists took a bunch of organic chemicals like water, methanol, ammonia, and carbon monoxide that make up the "ice" in comets and that exist all over the universe, and put them in a chamber, making one of the most perfect vacuums possible. Then they chilled it to minus 271 Celsius, aimed x-rays, gamma, ultraviolet, and microwaves at the formation, and watched to see what would happen.