Gale
08-20-2009, 04:52 AM
NASA Researchers Make First Discovery of Life's Building Block in Comet (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news115.html)
Bill Steigerwald
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
August 17, 2009
NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
"Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Dictionary: glycine, A sweet-tasting crystalline nonessential amino acid, C2H5NO2, that is the principal amino acid occurring in sugar cane. The simplest amino acid found in protein, it is derived from the alkaline hydrolysis of gelatin and used in biochemical research and medicine.
A nonessential amino acid occurring widely as a component of animal and plant proteins.
glycine (http://www.answers.com/topic/glycine)
Bill Steigerwald
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
August 17, 2009
NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
"Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Dictionary: glycine, A sweet-tasting crystalline nonessential amino acid, C2H5NO2, that is the principal amino acid occurring in sugar cane. The simplest amino acid found in protein, it is derived from the alkaline hydrolysis of gelatin and used in biochemical research and medicine.
A nonessential amino acid occurring widely as a component of animal and plant proteins.
glycine (http://www.answers.com/topic/glycine)