![Scan of the density µ (order parameter), with constant resource abundance r as control parameter. Standard deviation around the mean (coloured area) over independent simulations for a given volume |Ω|. Edges of growth and droplet stability (dotted and dashed lines). Scale ratio λ = 3, initial state with 2 seeds, cutoff time tmax = 5000. -- [physics.bio-ph]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Continuous-Game.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
[physics.bio-ph] Conway’s Game of Life shows that simple rules can generate a rich diversity of emerging structures. This cellular automaton has been translated to continuous space by Rafler (2011) in […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Liquid–liquid Phase Separation As A Driver Of Abiogenesis And Evolution
[Academia Molecular Biology and Genomics] The origin of life may have emerged through physical mechanisms that enable molecular organization and self-assembly.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Flavin Cycling Under Prebiotic Conditions: Bidirectional Electron Transfer And Versatility In Nickel and Iron Containing Environments
[biorxiv.org] Flavins are organic redox cofactors central to metabolism and uniquely capable of acting as extracellular electron shuttles. For life to have emerged, it must have disengaged itself from its […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Oil Droplets Remodel Themselves, And Swallow Their Surroundings – Like Living Cells
[New York University] NYU researchers have made microscopic oil droplets in water do something usually reserved for living cells: change shape in complex, controllable ways, and even engulf their surroundings.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
When Polymers Meet Primitive Membranes: How Molecular Cooperation May Have Helped Life Begin
[The Hebrew University of Jerusalem] Researchers have identified a simple form of molecular cooperation that may have helped life’s earliest building blocks become more stable and organized.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Pinpointing Where Cells First Begin Copying DNA
[Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Medical Sciences] Every time a cell divides, it must faithfully copy its entire genetic instruction manual. Errors during this process can damage the genome, […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
From Mars to Minas: Research Reclassifies Organisms That Thrive In Highly Saline Environments
[JORNAL DA USP – Universidade de São Paulo] Organisms that defy life by thriving in environments where most other living beings could not survive. To date, there is no scientific […]
![Recombination transferred part of archaeal YRS into non-canonical bacterial YRS. A) YRS core catalytic domain alignment from archaeal (indicated left as blue), bacterial non-canonical (purple) and bacterial canonical (pink) sequences. Both recombinant and nonrecombinant YRSs are found within all four major bacterial supergroups (Terrabacteria, Proteobacteria, PVC and FCB) B) Speciestree reconciled consensus trees reconstructed for the non-recombinant (left) and recombinant YRS sites (right). Branch lengths were estimated using NQ.bac+R10 in IQ-Tree v2.1.332. -- [biorxiv.org]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tryptophan-became.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Tryptophan Became Part Of The Universal Genetic Code Post-LUCA
[biorxiv.org] We evaluate whether tryptophan (W), widely thought to be the last of the 20 canonical amino acids added to the genetic code, was already present in the Last Universal […]
![Hypergraph percolation accelerates the emergence of large-scale biological organization. The growth of integrated organizational complexity is compared in systems governed by pairwise interactions and higher-order hypergraph interactions. Complexity is quantified as the percentage of elementary units incorporated into the largest connected organizational assembly as interaction density increases. The pairwise model exhibits a gradual increase in connectivity, whereas the hypergraph model displays a sharp transition associated with the formation of extensive higherorder connectivity. Inset A enlarges the transition region and shows the growth of the largest connected component as a function of interaction density. Therefore, higher-order interactions can generate abrupt increases in large-scale organization through hypergraph percolation dynamics. -- [q-bio.OT]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/From-simple-interactions.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
From Simple Interactions To Complex Biology: A Hypergraph Percolation Perspective
[q-bio.OT] The emergence of biological complexity can be viewed as a transition from fragmented local interactions to extensive integrated organization, raising the question of how large-scale connectivity emerges from simple […]
![a) Biological evolution as stochastic optimization: Initially, wild-type cells x grow up a population. A mutant y grows up a population. The populations x and y compete. The winner (greater population) then fetches more resources. Fitness landscapes at the bottom show how the mutant is an experiment, where the winner decides the next step direction. b) Evolution annotated in terms of the Central Dogma: (Left, green) Wildtype starting point, NA encodes PR, which gives fitness F. (Top, red), Mutation in the blueprint NA, becoming NA’. (Red, green) both NA sequences grow up into populations. (Next) The populations compete for fitness. The winner, Fx now carries with it the winning sequence NAx and protein P Rx. -- [biorxiv.org]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/RNA-And-Proteins.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
RNA And Proteins Joined Up At The Origins Of Life: Persistence Is The Point
[biorxiv.org] What drove nucleic acids (NA) to associate with proteins (PR) at the Origins of Life? We reason from polymer physics and the Central Dogma (CD) that the fitness value […]