acetaldehyde
as-uh-TAL-hi-dayd
Definition
A simple organic compound (an aldehyde) that can serve as a structural candidate when interpreting patterns of molecular fragments in a mass spectrometer.
Etymology
The word is a portmanteau formed from acetic, derived from the Latin 'acetum' meaning vinegar, and the term aldehyde, which was coined from 'alcohol dehydrogenatum' to describe a substance produced by the removal of hydrogen from alcohol.
In the news
The article uses acetaldehyde as an example of a specific molecule that researchers test against mass spectra data to see if it matches the detected chemical patterns. It highlights the uncertainty in identifying exact substances versus broad chemical families.
Enceladus sprays water, phosphates, molecular hydrogen and complex organics straight out of its buried ocean — and a 2025 analysis found previously unseen organic compounds in freshly ejected ice, adding still more steps to the chemical pathways that c
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com