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NEWS OF THE WEEK ASTROCHEMISTRY
ICY AMINO ACIDS Laboratory simulations produce amino acids in spacelike conditions
REACTOR Amino acids can form on ice grains in interstellar clouds.
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ESEARCHERS I N CALIFOR-
nia and in Europe have demonstrated in the labo ratory that amino acids, key building blocksforlife, can form in ice parti cles like those found in interstel lar space. Scientists have known for decades that amino acids form in space— some have been carried to Earth on meteorites. But exactly how and where they were created remained uncertain. Now two re search teams have
shown that ultraviolet radiation, which is common in interstellar space, can interact with icy mix tures of water and other simple molecules found there at tem peratures of less than 15 Κ to produce amino acids [Nature, 416,401 and 403 (2002)1. Many astrochemists have sug gested that the amino acids found in meteorites formed in an aque ous environment, probably on an asteroid, notes Max P. Bernstein, an organic chemist at NASA's Ames Research Center, where one of the teams is located. Ifet deuterium isotope ratios in the lighter amino acids, particularly glycine and alanine, found in me teorites indicate that they formed at extremely low temperatures, well below water's freezing point. Bernstein and his colleagues
REMEDIATION
NOT A GOOD DEAL? State officials, local residents criticize PCB cleanup settlement in Alabama
A
T FIRST GLANCE, THE PRO-
posed deal calling for Solutia to clean up polychlorinated biphenyl contami nation at a former Monsanto plant in Alabama seemed like a good idea. But local residents and officials are casting a jaundiced eye on the planned Superfund settlement between Solutia and the federal government. The proposed con sent decree, released in late March, calls for Solutia to evalu ate risks to health and the envi ronment from PCB contamina tion at the facility in Anniston, Ala., and determine cleanup op-
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tions (C&EN, March 25, page 9). "This is just, frankly, not a very demanding thing," says Donald W. Stewart, an attorney repre senting 3,500 Anniston residents who are suing Solutia for proper ty and personal injury damages. "It will not mean property will be cleaned up," Stewart says. James L. Wright, associate gen eral counsel for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, criticizes EPA for "commandeering" a remediation effort that the state was handling. Alabama was moving under haz ardous waste regulations on a study to determine the feasibili-
made glycine, alanine, and serine in their experiment. The finding means that some of the amino acids found on me teorites maybe very ancient, hav ing formed in interstellar clouds before the solar system formed. Such amino acids "likely seed every planet that is formed," sug gests astrochemist Louis J. Allamandola of the NASA group. The other experiment is part of a larger program of the Euro pean Space Agency, which will launch a mission next year hoping to rendezvous with a comet and determine whether it contains biologically important organic molecules. Graduate student Guillermo M. Munoz Caro of the Leiden Observatory in the Neth erlands, physical chemistry lec turer UweJ. Meierhenrich of Bre men University in Germany, and colleagues performed their sim ulation to test the analytical in strumentation for the mission. Using a somewhat different combination of starting materials, they produced 16 different amino acids.-REBECCA RAWLS
ty of cleanup options at the plant site, he says. The federal Superfund settlement announcement "was a surprise," he adds. The Superfund law "offers the best opportunity for a cleanup which is legally certain and com prehensive in its scope," the Jus tice Department says in explain ing why the state efforts were trumped. Federal officials, who negotiated with Solutia for more than a year, intend to work with state and local representatives "in promoting a cleanup that is as quick and technically sound as possible," theJustice Department adds. The Alabama attorney gener al is still determining whether the state will ask a federal court to reject or modify the settlement. Meanwhile, a U.S. Senate panel has scheduled a hearing for April 19 about PCB contamination in Anniston.-CHERYL H0GUE HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
