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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchA 2018 laboratory experiment showed that hydroxymethylene, a highly reactive form of carbene, can react with formaldehyde to produce two simple sugar precursors without water or another solvent. The reaction took place in a solid-argon matrix at 3 K (−270 °C), not in space. The result suggests a possible route for sugar-forming chemistry beyond Earth, but it does not establish how sugars arose in space or on early Earth.
What the experiment demonstrated
Hydroxymethylene is a reactive carbene and an isomer of formaldehyde. André K. Eckhardt, Michael M. Linden, Raffael C. Wende, Bastian Bernhardt and Peter R. Schreiner reported that it reacts with formaldehyde to form glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde—simple carbohydrate precursors that can take part in later chemistry. Eckhardt and Linden were identified as equal contributors to the study.
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To make hydroxymethylene, the team passed glyoxylic acid through a red-hot quartz tube. They then trapped the decomposition products in solid argon at 3 K (−270 °C), where the reaction with formaldehyde occurred. In that experimental setup, the initial formation of the two products required neither water nor another solvent. Chemistry World’s 2018 report describes the experiment; the paper appeared in Nature Chemistry in 2018 as “Gas-phase sugar formation using hydroxymethylene as the reactive formaldehyde isomer.”
How this differs from the formose reaction
The established formose reaction begins with formaldehyde in water and uses a base. It can generate a complex mixture of sugars and polymeric compounds over hours, but ribose—the sugar associated with RNA—is unstable under the conditions in which it forms, according to Chemistry World’s account.
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| Feature | Formose chemistry | Hydroxymethylene experiment |
|---|---|---|
| Starting chemistry | Formaldehyde with water and a base | Hydroxymethylene reacting with formaldehyde |
| Conditions described | Aqueous; reported to produce a complex mixture over hours | Solid argon matrix at 3 K (−270 °C), with no water or other solvent in the initial reaction |
| Reported outcome | A mixture of sugars and polymeric compounds; ribose is unstable under the conditions where it forms | Glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde |
| What the result establishes | A known route for producing a complex mixture in aqueous conditions | A laboratory route to two simple precursors under cryogenic matrix-isolation conditions |
The routes are therefore complementary rather than interchangeable. The new experiment establishes a way to form simple precursors without an aqueous reaction environment; it does not show that the full sequence to more complex sugars can proceed without water.
Why scientists connect it to space—and what remains hypothetical
Schreiner proposed that hydroxymethylene might form in space through a reaction between carbon dioxide and water. If such a pathway operates in an astronomical environment, the lab result could help explain how simple carbohydrate precursors might form there. But the reported work was a laboratory experiment: it did not observe the proposed sequence in space or establish that it accounts for sugars detected or expected there.
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The early-Earth implication is also unresolved. Prebiotic-chemistry researcher Saidul Islam described the chemistry as a complementary route that “could happen in space,” while noting that glyceraldehyde eventually needs to reach an aqueous environment for subsequent chemistry. The study therefore does not demonstrate the production of ribose, sugars on early Earth, or life through this mechanism.
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The paper and reporting
- The study: André K. Eckhardt, Michael M. Linden, Raffael C. Wende, Bastian Bernhardt and Peter R. Schreiner, “Gas-phase sugar formation using hydroxymethylene as the reactive formaldehyde isomer,” Nature Chemistry, volume 10, pages 1141–1147 (2018), DOI 10.1038/s41557-018-0128-2.
- Contemporary coverage: Katrina Krämer, “Super-reactive molecule could solve space sugar mystery,” Chemistry World, 11 September 2018.
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