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Beginning with the Miller-Urey Experiments1, the laboratory has been essential in exploring the chemical origins of life. In the last decade, plausible prebiotic syntheses have been proposed for RNA2 and its simple sugar building blocks3. Many chemical pathways leading to biological precursor molecules invoke ultravi- olet energy as a driving force2–7, but most studies refrain from delving deeply into the light-activated mechanisms, prefering to focus on the chemistry’s synthetic possiblities. Because traditional laboratory methods of simulating the primordial UV environment do not accurately reflect the prebiotic Earth and UV activity is generally wavelength dependent8, it is essential to develop methods to evaluate the feasiblity of key prebiotic photochemical processes by probing their wavelength dependence. This thesis proposes a new method for characterizing the UV sen- sitivity of reactions, enabling construction of quantum yield curves that provide the wavelength dependence of prebiotic photochemical processes, which can pro- vide insight into the type of photochemical mechanism driving a reaction. By coupling quantum yield curves with astrophysical models detailing the surface UV environment9–13, it becomes possible to evaluate reaction feasibility under condi- tions found on the prebiotic Earth or even exoplanet systems, allowing for the development of constraints to narrow the search for life elsewhere in the galaxy

Life’s First Steps: Exploring the Feasibility of Prebiotic Chemical Reactions Through Ultraviolet Dependence