The conference on Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets will be held June 25-28, 2012, at the Hotel Boulderado, located at 2115 Thirteenth Street, Boulder CO 80302. Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Fossil Record, Meet Molecular Clock
Arthropod expansion in morphological disparity following the Cambrian Explosion of Bilateria, as demonstrated by the Burgess Shale trilobite Olenoides and stem-Chelicerate Sidneyia. Image Credit: Smithsonian Institution, courtesy of Douglas Erwin. […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Earth's Early Atmosphere: An Update
Scientists from NAI’s New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have used the oldest minerals on Earth to reconstruct the atmospheric conditions present on Earth very soon after […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Conference on Life Detection in Extraterrestrial Samples
The Conference on Life Detection in Extraterrestrial Samples will be held February 13-15, 2012, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California. Purpose and Scope The return of samples […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Early Life More Complex than Previously Thought
Anyone who has taken high school biology has likely come into contact with a ciliate. The much-studied paramecium is one of 7,000 species of ciliates, a vast group of microorganisms […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Oxygen's Stops and Starts
Based on studies of rock cores, a team of geoscientists that include members of NAI’s Penn State Team have determined that oxygen did not appear in Earth’s atmosphere in a […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
NASA, Arsenic-based Life, Jumping the Gun, and Open Science
Study challenges existence of arsenic-based life, Nature “A group of scientists, led by microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have posted data on Redfield’s […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Mechanism of Evolution of the Primordial Metabolism Discovered
Volcanic-hydrothermal flow channels offer a chemically unique environment, which at first glance appears hostile to life. It is defined by cracks in the crust of the earth, through which water […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Did an Earlier Genetic Molecule Predate DNA and RNA?
In the chemistry of the living world, a pair of nucleic acids–DNA and RNA–reign supreme. As carrier molecules of the genetic code, they provide all organisms with a mechanism for […]
Posted inConferences and Meetings, Origin & Evolution of Life
2012 Gordon Research Conference on the Origin of Life
The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on the Origin of Life will take place at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, TX from January 8-13, 2012. This unique interdisciplinary meeting includes chemists, […]