  We explain a new relationship between formal group laws and ring spectra in
stable homotopy theory. We study a ring spectrum denoted DB which depends on a
commutative ring B and is closely related to the topological Andre-Quillen
homology of B. We present an explicit construction which to every 1-dimensional
and commutative formal group law F over B associates a morphism of ring spectra
F_*: HZ --> DB from the Eilenberg-MacLane ring spectrum of the integers. We
show that formal group laws account for all such ring spectrum maps, and we
identify the space of ring spectrum maps between HZ and DB. That description
involves formal group law data and the homotopy units of the ring spectrum DB.
