Achievement

Zach Adam (3rd yr IGERT student) completed a major study on the possible role of lower-electronic actinides in prebiotic chemistry and the early origins of life. The work, published in the journal Astrobiology, provides novel findings on the production of acetonitrile under putative prebiotic conditions. This research is an outgrowth of ideas Zach brought from his prior experience at NASA. In partnership with the Biogeocatalysis Astrobiology Institute (MSU), the Department of Earth Sciences and the IGERT Program, Zack developed his hypotheses into a sole-author publication. Radiolysis experiments were used to show the production of low levels of acetonitrile in the presence of uranium and thorium-rich minerals with different amounts of carbon and nitrogen. Results such as these demonstrate that organic molecules can form under prebiotic conditions, and that nuclear reactions yielding significant energy may have played an important role in the formation of specific organic compounds.