In many religious texts it is stated that man was created from dust. In the Hidden Words Baha'u'llah wrote, for example:
"Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust?" HW Arabic 68
Recent research has now illuminated the role of dust in space in the formation of prebiotic organic compounds. This gives us another perspective on 'dust'.
Prebiotic compounds are complex organic compounds believed to be formed during an early stage of the development of life.
These compounds have been seen for the first time in space, in a protoplanetary disk. Such disks of dust surround young stars while planets are forming. See this article on "Universe Today". The article comments:
"This was the first time this sort of chemistry has been examined under these conditions, and it’s clear that without cosmic dust, the chemical reactions required for life would be too inefficient to form in great quantities."