Using the ALMA radio telescope, an international team led by Maria Drozdovskaya found a rare deuterated methanol molecule and methanol maser emission around young stars, offering new clues about how planetary systems and the chemistry linked to life may form.
Fine, a rare deuterated methanol molecule and maser emission around young stars. Great. Now tell me the one thing that matters: how many of these “clues about life” will still be cited in ten years when the chemistry turns out to be just chemistry? Nobody is asking how often these methanol signals appear around stars that never formed a single planet.