Cyril PonnamperumaDied 20 Dec 1994 at age 71 (born 16 Oct 1923). Ceylonese-American chemist and exobiologist, who was a leading authority on the chemical origins of life. He built on the work of Miller and Clayton Urey studying chemical reactions in "primordial soup" experiments. Ponnamperuma focused on producing compounds related to the nucleic acids and offered a convincing theory about series of chemical reactions that gave rise to precursors of life on earth. He demonstrated that nucleotides and dinucleotides can be formed by random processes alone. In another achievement, he showed the formation of ATP, a compound critical to the use of energy within a cell. He was also active in the growing field of exobiology, the study of possible extraterrestrial life and studied lunar soil and meteorites.« |
