NASA Ames Reproduces the Building Blocks of Life in Laboratory

NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, cytosine, and thymine, three key components of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces these essential ingredients of life.

The research was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program.