Georgia Tech graduate student Sheng-Sheng Yu holds a sample that has been subjected to repeated cycles of wet-dry conditions. From amino acids and hydroxy acids, the process results in a mixture of polyesters and peptides containing as many as 14 units.

Credit: John Toon, Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech postdoctoral fellow Jay Forsythe loads a sample into a mass spectrometer. The testing was done to see what compounds were formed by subjecting mixtures of amino and hydroxy acids to repeated wet-dry cycles.

Credit: John Toon, Georgia Tech

A chemical reaction believed to have been critical to the origins of life on Earth could have happened in a simple, drying puddle of water.

Credit: Georgia Tech