A new study from Western University explores the possibility that Earth’s earliest life forms may have been cultivated by a meteorite impact event. The research team from Western’s Faculty of […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life
Producing Prebiotic Chemistry by Impacting Ice
Astrobiologists have provided new information about how comets and asteroids could have delivered prebiotic chemical compounds to the early Earth. The team studied how shock pressures can lead to the […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Geometry Shapes Evolution of Early Multicellularity
Organisms have increased in complexity through a series of major evolutionary transitions, in which formerly autonomous entities become parts of a novel higher-level entity. One intriguing feature of the higher-level […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Oxygen Requirements of Earth's Earliest Animals
A new study published recently in PNAS explores the relationship between the origin of animals and the oxygen content of the atmosphere. A rise in the oxygen content of the […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Fuel Cells May Have Answers To Origin of Life on Earth
How life arose from the toxic and inhospitable environment of our planet billions of years ago remains a deep mystery. Researchers have simulated the conditions of an early Earth in […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Pinwheel 'Living' Crystals and the Origin of Life
Simply making nanoparticles spin coaxes them to arrange themselves into what University of Michigan researchers call ‘living rotating crystals’ that could serve as a nanopump. They may also, incidentally, shed […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Oldest Piece Of Earth's Crust Suggests A Cool Early History
With the help of a tiny fragment of zircon extracted from a remote rock outcrop in Australia, the picture of how our planet became habitable to life about 4.4 billion […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Ancient Minerals on Earth and the Origin of Life
Astrobiologists supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute have shown that mineral species on the early Earth may have been different than the ones found on our planet today. The researchers […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
How did Multicellularity Evolve?
The evolutionary path from unicellular life to multicellularity is varied, but all lead to complex organisms In the beginning there were single cells. Today, many millions of years later, most […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
New Study Brings Scientists Closer to the Origin of RNA
One of the biggest questions in science is how life arose from the chemical soup that existed on early Earth. One theory is that RNA, a close relative of DNA, […]