The mystery of life on Earth is sweet
In some ways, there is a delightful irony to the interstellar origins of sugar.
Sugar, it has become a cliché to say, is the new tobacco. There are certainly parallels between the two products — both were linchpins of colonial expansion, are addictive health hazards and their harms were long hidden by big business. But sugar isn’t just a delicious villain, a dietary decadence, or an indulgence. Before it became the chief cause of obesity, it was a building block of life. Sugars are essential components of DNA and RNA, building blocks of cells and the primary source of energy, even in the simplest and earliest life forms. Till recently, though, their origins on Earth were a mystery.
A research paper published in Nature Astronomy earlier this week strengthens the case that life on Earth was made possible by travellers from space. Researchers used two powerful radio telescopes to study the Milky Way’s Interstellar Medium — all the dust and molecules outside of solar systems — and detected four-carbon sugars. The saccharine deep-space travellers likely hitched a ride to this planet on asteroids that crashed onto the surface, and became the fuel for the spark of life.
In some ways, there is a delightful irony to the interstellar origins of sugar. Too many people, too often, are weighed down — sometimes literally — by the calories in their sweet treats, by the creeping numbers on an annual blood test. To know, in some small way, that the dietary villain of the 21st century is an unsung alien hero at the root of all life, floating through space, without weight, is comforting. And, perhaps, the odd dessert can now be seen not just as indulgence but homage to all that sugar has given this planet.
