Talk:Glycolaldehyde

Untitled
What is the IUPAC systematic name for this molecule? Is it hydroxyethanal? or carbonylethanol?


 * The aldehyde group has higher priority than the alcohol group, so 2-hydroxyethanal is the IUPAC name. —Keenan Pepper 05:58, 2 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Updated: Ethanal IUPAC now calls acetaldehyde. Similarly OCC=O is now 2-hydroxyacetaldehyde. (Sometimes it seems like IUPAC is going crazy -- Ammonia now has a systematic name "Azane". There will be a growing heap of old IUPAC names and new IUPAC names, alongside the heap of old and new popular names.) -Whiner01 (talk) 05:37, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Question: Why not write the systematic name (2-hydroxyethanal) so that people that don't know about the newest IUPAC changes can still identify the molecule (which was my case)? (User:imbiriba) Wed Nov 26 09:54:11 EST 2008 —Preceding undated comment was added at 14:57, 26 November 2008 (UTC).

Edit request
Two things, one major (perhaps) and one minor. The prebiotic section claims that lightning FOLLOWS glycolaldehyde and formaldehyde...that seems to be TOTALLY backwards. I'm pretty sure (but if I were positive, I'd change it myself) that lightning produces them, not follows their production. Secondly, I (stupidly) searched for glycoaldehyde and found nothing ..could the misspelling redirect to this article?Abitslow (talk) 14:59, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Only Diose
Acetic acid also follows the molecular formula C2O2H4. Therefore, there needs to be at LEAST one source explaining why glycolaldehyde should be considered the only diose. This article currently provides zero explanation as to why glycolaldehyde should be considered the only diose. Frankly, it also provides no explanation as to why formaldehyde should not be considered a "monose" either. If you can't provide evidence or explanation then you shouldn't include it at all. Science Is My Life (talk) 15:35, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Structural formulae
In the box present in section "Structure", the first of the four structural formulae (the one at 70% of abundance) has three oxygen atoms. Is it perhaps a hydrated form of glycolaldehyde (the carbonyl turned into a gem-glycol)? Ekisbares (talk) 14:14, 26 July 2023 (UTC)