2025

  Discovery of water droplet freezing steps bridges atmospheric science, climate solutions  

2024

  Understanding Polymerization in Extraterrestrial Ices     UH Manoa joins $26 Million NSF project to find climate-friendly cooling    $26M grant fuels UH research on climate-friendly cooling     NSF announces 4 new Engineering Research Centers focused on biotechnology, manufacturing, robotics and sustainability    PNAS: Ionizing radiation exposure on Arrokoth shapes a sugar world     Sulfur molecules from space may have seeded early life on Earth     Formation of Alkylsulfonic Acids in Interstellar Analog Ices     ​​Sulfur molecules from space seeded early life on Earth     ​​Synthesis of Methanetriol (Video)     ​​Molecule Breaks 150-Year Old Chemistry Rule     ​​UH Mānoa scientists help unravel life’s cosmic beginnings     How a sugar acid crucial for life could have formed in interstellar clouds     Interstellar cloud conditions yield ‘impossible molecule’     Science In The Pipeline: Methanetriol     First Synthesis of Elusive Methanetriol     How a sugar acid crucial for life could have formed in interstellar clouds     Breakthrough Synthesis Reveals New Clues in Search for the Origins of Life     Unraveling the origins of life: Scientists discover ‘cool’ sugar acid formation in space     Interstellar Ices: A Factory of the Origin-of-Life Molecules  

2023

  Interstellar Ices: A Factory of the Origin-of-Life Molecules     Deep space chemical reactions unveil secrets of Earth’s life origins     Life as we know it may have its roots in an old, cold cosmic cloud     Stellar Origins: Life’s Building Blocks May Predate Earth     Building blocks for life could have formed near new stars and planets     New Insights into the Origins of Amino Acids: A Cosmic Journey     University of Hawaii unearths clues to life's origin with icy space amino acid     Amino Acids May Have Formed Alongside Stars or Planets     Key molecule for life may have formed on interstellar ice     Scientists Probe the Source of Key Hydrocarbons on Earth—and in Space     Molecular Mass Growth to Coronene in Extreme Environments     Colorful Kuiper Belt puzzle solved by UH researchers     Shane Goettl Wins ARCS Graduate Student Award     How football-shaped molecules occur in the universe     Elusive antiaromatic molecule produced in a lab for the 1st time  

2022

  UH lab produces building blocks to DNA and RNA in deep space     2022 PCCP HOT Article: Mechanistical study on the formation of hydroxyacetone, methyl acetate, and 3-hydroxypropanal along in interstellar ice analogs     2022 PCCP HOT Article: Gas-phase formation of silicon monoxide via non-adiabatic reaction dynamics and its role as a building block of interstellar silicates     It Came from Outer Space –“The Spark for the Molecular Evolution of Life as We Know It?”     2022 PCCP HOT Article: Excited state photochemically driven surface formation of benzene from acetylene ices on Pluto     Featured article in Nature Comm: Experimental identification of aminomethanol—the key intermediate in the Strecker Synthesis     Elusive atmospheric molecule produced in a lab for the 1st time by UH 

2021

  Key to carbon-free cars? Look to the stars    Novel P and N chemistry    Environmentally-friendly space fuel research gets $550K boost    Space offers insight on benzene production    $600K grant supports national defense through energetic material development    Key to Carbon-Free Cars? Look to the Stars    Basic buliding block to earliest forms of life discovered  

2020

  New Study Evaluates Role of Carbenes on the Formation of Soot     Key building block of life may have arrived from deep space     Deep-space discovery debunks decades-old belief     Laser techniques and photochemistry find elusive molecular building block     Touchless chemical reactions through levitation     Sound waves levitate chemistry     Andrew Turner selected for ACS Dissertation Award     Mystery of where early Earth’s life-fueling phosphates came from may have been solved     Aaron Thomas graduates with a Ph.D.! (1:54:36)     Aaron's commencement with President Lassner  

2019

  Sand Dunes on Titan   Scientists reveal new pathway for carbon chemistry to evolve in space     Berkeley Lab study discovers method to synthesize complex aromatics     Study Reveals ‘Radical’ Wrinkle in Forming Complex Carbon Molecules in Space     A Titanic Theory: A Cool New Reaction Has Astronomers Over the Moon     Reaction Dynamics in Extreme Environments and Astrochemistry     Key phosphorus-based molecule for life on Earth may have come from Space     Recipe for Making H₂O in the Lunar Regolith: Implant Solar Wind Hydrogen and Heat with Micrometeorite Impacts     Wet Side of the Moon     Matthew Abplanalp graduates with a Ph.D.! (2:06:40)     Matthew Abplanalp wins student excellence in research award!     Water formation on the moon demonstrated by UH Manoa scientists     Water formation on the Moon demonstrated     Zapping moon dust produces water     How to Make Moon Water: Add Solar Wind, Tiny Meteorites, and Then Heat)     Moon water breakthrough: NASA finds evidence of water forming on moon  

2018

  Phosphine: Molecule of National Chemistry Week!     Chemists find possible explanation for Titan’s haze     Scientists Home In On The Mystery Of Titan’s Atmospheric Haze     Scientists Simulate Complex Chemistry of Titan’s Atmosphere     Resesarchers Identify the “Missing Link” in the Chemistry of Saturn's Largest Moon     Scientists present new clues to cut through the mystery of Titan’s atmospheric haze     “A Prebiotic Earth” –Missing Link Found on Saturn’s Moon Titan  

Newsday's Paul Hawkins BBC

  Phosphates: Key Ingredients for Life On Earth Could Have Originated In Deep Space     A Key Ingredient For Life Fell To Earth From Outer Space     The artificial interstellar ice grains that provide 'compelling new evidence' the ingredients for life on Earth came from deep space on a comet     Key molecular building blocks may have come from space     Biocompatible phosphorus could have traveled to Earth on space ice     Did key building blocks for life come from deep space?     Molecule with simplest phosphorus peptide bond synthesised in space-like conditions     Predicting the chemistry happening inside interstellar ice     Phosphino Formic Acid Detected for the First Time     New Study Says Alien Worlds May Lack Enough Phosphorus to Create Extraterrestrial Life     Chocolate in deep space     Complex organic compounds from dying stars could be life precursors     Study at Berkeley Lab traces growth of molecules into solids, life forms     Hydrocarbons: How Did the Chemical Building Blocks of Life Appear in Space?     Chemical Sleuthing Unravels Possible Pathways to Aromatic Compounds in Space     Sweets in an unexpected place and unexpected ingredients in sweets  

2017

  Ralf Kaiser named American Chemical Society fellow     Astrochemistry: How life may have begun in space  

2016

  ARCS Foundation honors top doctoral candidates in STEM fields    A chilling discovery about the universe’s molecular building blocks of life     Did life's building blocks form in interstellar ice? Cosmic rays can create molecules in frozen dust clouds between stars  

2015

  Why Is Water So Essential for Life?     Are Dying Carbon Stars The Ultimate Source Of Our DNA?  \   DNA, Origins of Life: Hot Start to Life Described as 'Cosmic Barbeque' by Astronomers     A Hot Start to the Origin of Life?  

2014

​  ​University of Hawaii researchers find life-building compound could be from space     Key building block of life may have come from deep space     Carbonic Acid Crystal Forms Clarified     Reduce Global Warming By Understanding How Fire Works     Evidence Confirms Combustion Theory  

2013

  Ralf Kaiser: A Crossed Molecular Beams and Study on the Formation of Prototype Aromatic and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Extraterrestrial Environments     Insights into Evolution of Life on Earth from Saturn's Moon Titan     CEN PICKS – 246th ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis     Comets May Have Delivered Life’s Early Building Blocks     Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth   2012   ACS Establishes Astrochemistry Subdivision     Kaiser elected fellow to national physics society     UH Manoa researchers discover novel chemical route to form organic molecules     Hydrocarbon discovery provides clue to origins of life and control of toxic emissions   2010   The final chemistry frontier: Molecules of the interstellar medium must break the rules to make the stuff of space   2009   Unraveling the Chemistry of Titan's Hazy Atmosphere     Peering into Titan's haze     Titan’s Haze Acts as Ozone Layer     Chemical dynamics of triacetylene formation and implications to the synthesis of polyynes in Titan’s atmosphere   2008   UH Board of Regents approved naming of W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry     $1.2M Grant: Tool will replicate chemistry of space   2006   $ 2.4M Grant: UH-led researchers to study chemistry of Saturn's moon   2004  Aloha to Space Chemistry     An Icy Atmosphere   2003   New Program at The University of Hawai'i