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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
11:10
Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments
Published on: January 21, 2014
Photochemical Production of Formaldehyde in Earth's Primitive Atmosphere
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|October 10, 1980
Abstract:
Formaldehyde could have been produced by photochemical reactions in Earth's primitive atmosphere, at a time when it consisted mainly of molecular nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Removal of formaldehyde from the atmosphere by precipitation can provide a source of organic carbon to the oceans at the rate of 10(11) moles per year. Subsequent reactions of formaldehyde in primeval aquatic environments would have implications for the abiotic synthesis of complex organic molecules and the origin of life.
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