[Acta Biotheoretica] The scientific restlessness surrounding the question of what life is (expressed in the provocations of Feynman and Schrödinger) guides this review article by integrating physics, chemistry, and biology […]
Nanotechnology & SynBio
Posted inNanotechnology & SynBio
Advances in Machine Learning for Directed Evolution: A Five-Year Retrospective
[q-bio.BM] The last five-plus years have seen many protein engineering disciplines transformed by advances in machine learning (ML), but the same cannot be said for directed evolution.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The Emergence Of Life In The Light Of Evolution
[q-bio.PE] The origin of life is often framed primarily as a chemical problem, yet life s defining feature is evolution.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
ExMODE: A Comprehensive Resource For Extremophile Genomic And Functional Exploration
[iMetaOmics] ExMODE (https://db.genomics.cn/exmode/) integrates 3518 samples to build a unified extremophile resource, which hosts 1.35 billion habitat-specific non-redundant genes, 5.25 million representative protein structures, 67,026 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and 164,132 […]
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy
Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Planetary Materials Using Laser Deposited Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles
[x-mol.net] This work demonstrates a surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy (SERS) approach based on laser deposition of Au plasmonic nanoparticles onto several relevant mineral surfaces. A pulsed 1064 nm wavelength laser is […]
![Photographs of the mineral and inorganic substrates used in this study and the corresponding hybrid materials obtained. -- [Nature]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Synthesis.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Synthesis Of Mineral-organic Hybrid Materials Under Dynamic Prebiotic Conditions
[Nature] The increasing of molecular complexity must be understood as a planetary phenomenon where prebiotic chemistry and geological settings converge. In this scene, HCN chemistry may have played a crucial […]
![Selection on a collective trait drives the origin of heredity. (A) Intracellular 5 competition drives the dominance of the red plasmid when fluorescence is enforced (left-hand panel) while poor inheritance and carriage costs purge the ancestral plasmid population entirely when no selective gate is used (right-hand panel). Coloured zones show the proportion of the population in each colour class through 21 cycles: red only, green only, yellow (red plus green), white (cells without fluorescence). -- [biorxiv.org]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Forging.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Forging An Evolutionary Individual From Separate Replicators
[biorxiv.org] A central puzzle in the evolution of individuality is the origin of heredity. Egalitarian transitions integrate formerly independent replicators into a higher-level individual, but this requires the collective to […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry
Chemically Modified Sugars As Multifunctional Precursors For Direct, Template-Free Synthesis Of Nanoporous Carbonaceous Materials
[JACS] Carbonaceous solids with pores in the nanometer domain are of great technological importance owing to their amenability to sorption/separation, catalysis, and electrochemical applications.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics
Autonomous Multi-Agent Reconstruction of Prebiotic Reaction Networks Reveals Organizational Features of Amino Acid Synthesis
[chemrxiv.org] Decades of origin-of-life research have uncovered hundreds of prebiotically plausible reactions across hydrothermal, surface, and biochemical environments, yet this knowledge remains fragmented across chemistry, geochemistry, and astrobiology. Here we […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Molecular Assembly As A Universal Biosignature Measurable By Mass Spectrometry
[PNAS] Detecting life beyond Earth requires biosignatures that do not depend on the chemistry of known organisms.