E-Mail An international group of scientists led by the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have studied the chemical composition of 50 protoplanetary-disk forming regions in the Perseus Molecular Cloud, and found that despite being in the same cloud, the amounts of complex organic molecules they contain are quite different. Interestingly, the chemically rich young disks have similar compositions of organic molecules. These findings raise an important question: do solar-like systems share a common chemistry at birth? It was once believed that complex organic molecules were rare in the universe, and that this rarity might be a reason we have not found evidence of life outside the earth. However, in the last two decades it has become clear that these molecules are common. According to Yao-Lun Yang, who led the research as a member of the Star and Planet Formation Laboratory in the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research, and is now at the University of Virginia as a VICO Origins postdoctoral fellow, "Today, scientists have begun to systematically survey protoplanetary disks--disks where planets eventually form around a star--in the hope of determining how these molecules form, how common they are, and what impact they have on planetary systems."