Taming a poison: Saving plants from cyanide with carbon dioxide

A team of Canadian and Finnish scientists has discovered cyanoformate—a simple, unstable ion involved in the fruit-ripening process that has evaded detection for decades. Their findings reveal that the surrounding medium greatly impacts the stability of cyanoformate. While this allows carbon dioxide to deactivate cyanide's killer capabilities in fruit, recognizing the factors governing cyanoformate's instability has a larger implication: understanding low-energy carbon dioxide 'catch-and-release.'

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