{"data":{"id":2041,"lang":"en","title":"Sydney PhD Student Recreates Cosmic Dust in the Lab, Offering Clues to Life's Origins","summary":"A University of Sydney PhD student recreated interstellar dust in glass tubes using plasma discharge, producing life's chemical building blocks and matching real cosmic dust's infrared signature.","category":"science","category_label":"Science","published_at":"2026-07-20T18:01:31Z","updated_at":"2026-07-20T18:01:31Z","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2041-sydney-phd-student-recreates-cosmic-dust-in-the-lab-offering-clues-to-life-s","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2041?lang=en","markdown_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2041.md?lang=en","image_url":"https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/images/news-and-opinion/news/2026/february/phd-candidate-linda-losurdo-in-her-university-of-sydney-lab.-landscape-2.-photo-fiona-wolf---university-of-sydney.jpg","word_count":175,"reading_time_minutes":1,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2026/02/02/cosmic-dust-carbonaceous-analogue-infrared.html","domain":"sydney.edu.au"},{"url":"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260718010156.htm","domain":"sciencedaily.com"}],"translation":{"lang":"cs","id":2114,"title":"Doktorandka ze Sydney vytvořila v laboratoři kosmický prach, který odhaluje stopy k počátku života","url":"https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2114-doktorandka-ze-sydney-vytvorila-v-laboratori-kosmicky-prach-ktery-odhaluje","api_url":"https://techtools.cz/news-api/v1/articles/2114?lang=cs"},"content":"PhD candidate Linda Losurdo at the University of Sydney has built a working analogue of interstellar dust inside sealed glass tubes, giving scientists a hands-on way to study the chemistry that may have seeded life on Earth. Working with supervisor Professor David McKenzie, she filled the tubes with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene, then applied roughly 10,000 volts to trigger a glow-discharge plasma mimicking conditions near aging stars and supernova remnants.\n\nThe process broke the gas molecules apart and let them recombine into new solids rich in CHON molecules — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, the core building blocks of life. Infrared readings of the lab-made dust matched signatures astronomers have observed in real cosmic dust clouds, meaning researchers can now study these environments without waiting for a comet or asteroid sample to arrive on Earth.\n\n\"It's like we have recreated a little bit of the Universe in a bottle in our lab,\" Losurdo said. The work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, earned her a best-presentation award at the Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society."}}