Word: aquos
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...Ammono" chemistry, says the astronomer, is very different from earth's familiar "aquo" chemistry, but there are vital similarities. Both systems produce some well-known compounds, among them the amino acids of which proteins are built. Firsoff is certain that when the first living organisms evolved on earth, the atmosphere above the primeval ocean contained ammonia but no free oxygen. When oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere and ammonia disappeared, life on earth adapted itself to the new conditions. The amino acids that form earth's proteins, says Firsoff, are relics of the prehistoric conditions under which earth life...