Microdroplets’ chemical wizardry could have given life a helping hand
Droplet reduction may shed light on puzzles of the prebiotic era and offer a new way to do green chemistry
Tiny water droplets found in clouds, sea spray and geysers can spontaneously reduce sugars and other essential metabolites at their surface. These microdroplets offer a plausible explanation for the creation of sugars and other simple organic molecules prior to the existence of life on Earth, as no reducing agent or applied charge is required.
A group of researchers led by Richard Zare of Stanford University in the US stumbled upon the discovery when attempting to create gold films and nanoparticles using water droplets with added sodium borohydride.