Methyl halides—organic compounds in which a methyl group is bound to a halogen atom (typically chlorine, bromine or iodine)—play a pivotal role in atmospheric chemistry, most notably in stratospheric ...

A team of University of California scientists has identified a gene that controls the production by terrestrial plants of methyl halides, gaseous compounds that contribute to the destruction of ozone ...

Methyl halide compounds include methyl chloride, methyl bromide and methyl iodide, which become reactive agents when released into the atmosphere. Bromine and chlorine, two products of these reactions ...

A Hycean exoplanet could have detectable methyl halide gases in its atmosphere that could indicate the presence of life. Credit: Amanda Smith illustration These gases — composed of carbon, hydrogen, ...

What can methyl halides, which are gases that consist of one carbon and three hydrogen atoms while being attached to a halogen atom, help scientists identify life beyond Earth? This is what a recent ...

Robyn Williams: One of the great successes of environmental prudence in recent years has been controlling the chemicals that eat the ozone layer - the Montreal Protocol saw to that. But while we've ...

In a new Astrophysical Journal Letters paper, researchers from the University of California, Riverside, describe these gases, which could be detected in the atmospheres of exoplanets — planets outside ...

The search for alien life is one of the most captivating scientific quests of our time. With the discovery of thousands of ...

A team of University of California scientists has identified a gene that controls the production by terrestrial plants of methyl halides, gaseous compounds that contribute to the destruction of ozone ...

Scientists have identified a promising new way to detect life on faraway planets, hinging on worlds that look nothing like Earth and gases rarely considered in the search for extraterrestrials. In a ...