{"id":10522,"date":"2026-05-07T11:42:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/?post_type=news_events&p=10522"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:30:14","slug":"hydrogen_cyanide","status":"publish","type":"news_events","link":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/en\/news_events\/highlights\/2026\/hydrogen_cyanide\/","title":{"rendered":"Shedding light on how hydrogen cyanide formed on early Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

<Press Release><\/strong>
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\nResearchers identify a mineral-mediated chemical pathway for hydrogen cyanide production, compatible with our current understanding of Earth\u2019s history<\/strong>
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Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, solving a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth’s atmosphere didn\u2019t contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly found chemical pathway shows that HCN could instead have been continuously supplied from abundant amino acids.<\/p>\n

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The question of how life first emerged on Earth has been the subject of intense scientific research for decades. At the center of many origin-of-life theories lies hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a small but highly reactive molecule that can give rise to a wide range of biological building blocks. Several laboratory studies, such as the landmark Miller-Urey experiment in 1953, have shown that HCN can produce various amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars under methane-rich conditions with reducing atmosphere, providing the chemical ingredients needed for life on early Earth.<\/p>\n

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However, recent geological evidence has cast doubt on a long-standing model regarding the origin of HCN itself. Scientists have found that early Earth\u2019s atmosphere most likely did not contain abundant methane, which is a key ingredient in classic HCN-producing reactions. If methane levels were indeed low, it raises an important question: Where did HCN on early Earth come from?<\/p>\n

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Seeking to address this puzzle, a research team led by Professor Ryuhei Nakamura and Dr. Yamei Li from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan, investigated alternative ways that HCN might have formed on our planet over 3 billion years ago. Their findings, made available online on March 23, 2026, and published in Volume 123, Issue 13 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i><\/a> on March 31, 2026, describe a previously unrecognized chemical pathway that generates HCN in a way that is compatible with our modern understanding of Earth\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor a full press release, please visit Science Tokyo website\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10525,"template":"","news_events_cat":[9],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events\/10522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news_events"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elsi.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_events_cat?post=10522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}