Scientists have used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. The carbon compound is known as methyl cation, or CH3+. It is important because it aids ...

A complex form of carbon crucial for life on Earth has been spotted outside the solar system for the first time. Its presence helps show how the compounds needed for life could come from space. The ...

The first grains of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu are turning out to be far richer than many scientists dared hope, packed with organic molecules that speak directly to how life may have first ...

Scientists detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex ...

Atoms are like Lego bricks: Each little building block combines to make something more complicated — from molecules, to enzymes, to DNA. For the first time, astronomers have detected a crucial step in ...

Canadian lake in January 2000 and is the most pristine specimen ever studied of this group of important space objects. Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain vital clues to the evolution of carbon ...

Studies by a Northwestern University-led team suggest that a common environmental bacterium, Comamonas testosteroni, may someday be harnessed as nature’s plastic recycling center. Most bacteria prefer ...

For the first time, researchers mapped the metabolic mechanisms in a Comamonas bacterium that digests chemicals from plastic and plant waste. This new information could potentially lead to novel ...