Cold Sugar Cloud Found in Space

Roland Piquepaille writes "A cloud filled with simple molecules of sugar has been found 26,000 light-years away from us, near the middle of our galaxy. The 8-atom sugar molecules exist in a gas cloud named Sagittarius B2 at a temperature of only 8 degrees above absolute zero. Too far and too cold to bake your next cake! However, even if chemistry reactions on Earth and in this frigid sugar cloud are very different, astronomers think this discovery "suggests how the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life could first form in interstellar space." Please read the original article for more details or just enjoy these illustrations describing how prebiotic chemistry -- the formation of the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life -- occurs in interstellar clouds."

Comments

What if formed on a planet first?

[mind21_98]

What if the sugar molecules were formed on a planet first, and then swept up into space by a large asteroid or something? That seems very unlikely, but it's a possible scenario.

Food mining in Space!

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Now just wait- one day clouds like this one will be the primary food source (with processing of course) of many a "Starbase". If you've got a base set up nearby, should be no problem to mine this cloud for food & oxygen.

Re:Food mining in Space!

[harrkev]

Well, you said "On average." In a nebula, isn't the average density of gas a *LOT* higher?

I am not an expert on this, but nebulas can be readily seen, so their density should be orders of magnitude more.

Re:Food mining in Space!

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Ah, but by the time we can go 36 light years, do you really think we won't have table-top nanofactories? Any organic or pre-organic molecule has the right elements to turn into food- it's just a matter of rearranging them properly.

Another spam posting.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Our friend Roland must do nothing but sit around all day submitting articles on slashdot. I've never seen less than 1 per day, and I rarely read section stories. Amazing how he never forgets that link to his own spammy blog, isn't it?

I mean, goddamn. I expect ads, so editors, if he's paying for it, by all means put it up here. Just don't try to sneak it past us as a quasi-article, ok? With as many duplicate submissions as you guys must get, it's just impossible that it's not a covert ad.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though. Just do us all a favor, and put him in a killfile. Let him post comments, I don't care... but the article submission is starting to grate on my nerves. Tell you what, do it, and I'll subscribe. I'm sure others will too.

Re:Another spam posting.

[YGingras]

If moderation of submissions works like for the moderation of comments, the newest say 5% of users can't moderate and only people with positive karma receive mod points so we rule out the possibility that someone creates a gigazillions accounts just to moderate his own submissions.

A scheme where the editor aprove a post and then the post must receive say 5 mod points might delay the flow too much but if each submission stay a few hours in the moderation bin it has a chance to be marked "-1 spam" before an editor checks it, saving the editor some work and saving us a lotsa spam.

: )

Re:Immanuel Velikovsky

[notjonny]

Thanks for the clarification on hydrocarbons.

I have always thought there ought to be a category for books like Velikovsky's. SciFi has been refered to as "Speculative Fiction" by Harlan Ellison. Books like Velikovsky's should get a label like "Speculative Non-Fiction". Yes, I know that doesn't make logical sense, but then again look at what it refers to. Maybe "Just So" story is better? Daniel Dennet used Just So story to describe the Aquatic Ape Theory which he thought might actually have some merit and needed further study. Though all this is academic since it is unlikely any of the authors would use these labels....