Laurent Pagani

Astronomers have seen glycolamide in a hot protostellar cocoon for the first time. Its abundance and ratios with related compounds exactly mirror those in a cold interstellar cloud. Complex carbon molecules don't perish during star formation but are passed on like a recipe through the fire.

Glycine, a basic protein building block, eluded astronomers for nearly half a century. Then they found its isomer, methyl carbamate, where the same atoms are arranged differently. The ALMA radio telescope picked up the molecule’s signal, letting them measure its abundance and temperature. The discov