How comets may have 'seeded' life on Earth.
A new look at a comet's core could reveal its role in our planet's early history.
By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
"One surprise: The team has detected an unexpectedly high concentration of methyl cyanide. Biologists say methyl cyanide is a key player in reactions that form DNA.
"If methyl cyanide is a particularly abundant component, it would suggest that comets could have delivered an abundance of these highly reactive compounds to the early Earth," notes Tom McCollom, a researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics."
http://csmonitor.com/2005/0908/p04s01-stss.html

Bob Clark