![Graphical illustration showing planetary bodies (not to scale) where H2O2 has been detected, the major production pathways of H2O2, and its role in a few examples of prebiotic chemical networks. -- [Fundamental Research]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hydrogen-peroxide-1.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
[Fundamental Research]. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is increasingly recognized as an important molecule in prebiotic chemistry that potentially had a large impact on life’s early evolution.
biochemistry
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.
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Micropeloidal Textures – Definition, Formation And Potential As Biosignatures
[Earth-Science Reviews] Microbial biosignatures result from the interactions between microbial populations, metabolic processes, organic and mineral products, and the surrounding physicochemical environment.
![Distribution and protein structures of ancestral energy conservation enzymes in bacteria and archaea. For escape as free-living cells, metabolism had to achieve the state of a balanced stoichiometric reaction145, called redox balance in physiology, and the exergonic reactions of electron transfer from H2 to CO2 needed to be coupled to the pumping of ions from the inside of the cell to the outside (chemiosmotic coupling), as in modern cells. Prior to the coupling of CO2 reduction to ion pumping, the natural pH gradient provided by serpentinizing systems (pH 9–11, vs. sea water (pH 6.5146) was harnessable with the help of simple, abiotically synthesized hydrophobics147,148 such as fatty acids, which were recently shown to support the ATP-synthesizing function of a rotor-stator ATPase149. -- [q-bio.PE]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Intermediate.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Intermediate Stages In The Origin Of Metabolism At A Phosphorylating Hydrothermal Vent
[q-bio.PE] The origin of life required the emergence of metabolism, an autocatalytic network of enzymatic reactions that synthesize amino acids, nucleotides and cofactors. At the origin of metabolism there were […]
![Bold black letters illustrate amino acids that are deduced as early by the approach, while red letters indicate late additions to the alphabet according to the approach (C* implies possible prebiotic synthesis under specific and narrow conditions [4]). Regular black letters represent amino acids that have not been resolved as either early or late by the approach. LUCA: last universal common ancestor; LECA: last eukaryotic common ancestor; rTCA: tricarboxylic acid cycle. -- Trends in Genetics](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Reconstructing.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Reconstructing Ancient Protein Alphabets: What Can We Truly Infer?
[Trends in Genetics] The canonical amino acid alphabet has remained remarkably stable since life’s early stages, yet the factors that shaped its emergence remain debated. Early views emphasized prebiotic availability […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Two Origins Of Life
[Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf] How and where did the first forms of life arise? These are the main questions driving research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University […]
![Physical and chemical gradients predicted to dictate habitability across depth in the martian subsurface. These include (1) constraints on water; although water activity (aw) gradients are not yet known for Mars, predicted liquid brine stability depends on primary ionic composition with perchlorate-rich brines transitioning into chloride- and sulfate-enriched brines with depth and temperature (Chevrier and Slank, 2024; Stevens and Cockell, 2023). It is important to note that porosity is expected to decrease with depth, which may also influence water availability, with any potential brines increasingly localized to pore spaces and fractures (Michalski et al., 2018). (2) Surface radiation exposure is expected to subside to lower background radionuclide decay around 3–5 m depth. (3) If liquid water is present at depth, chemotrophic microbial communities could utilize the products of water–rock interaction including inorganic electron donors/acceptors and simple abiotic organics. Image created using biorender.com.-- [Astrobiology (Journal)]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Life-Detection.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inMars
Life Detection In The Martian Subsurface: Advancements In Microbial Metabolic Research Under Mars Laboratory And Field-Analog Conditions Since Viking
[Astrobiology (Journal)] Following the Viking experiments in 1976, many of the original inferences of biological metabolism have been replicated via abiotic mechanisms we now know are plausible on Mars’ surface.
![Time evolution for two morphological dynamics in PISA specimens: (a) gelation takes place in an oxygen-poor PISA specimen, (b) “Phoenix” dynamics take place in the oxygen-rich PISA specimen (Adapted with permission from reference [19]).-- [Life]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Degradation.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Degradation, Osmosis and the Emergence of Basic Functionalities in Abiotic Synthetic Life-like Chemical Systems
[Life] Autonomous and interconnected multiscale out-of-equilibrium processes, including chemical and physical feedbacks, occur at the micron and lower scales during the heterotrophic synthesis of simple abiotic protocells, such as the […]
![Representation of the functional cycle (Funktionskreis) capturing the structural coherence between the living system and the assimilated environment, showing the analog coding processes operating in perception of external signals and in signal transduction, and the digital coding processes operating in the system's self-maintenance and reproduction. -- [BioSystems]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Codepoietic.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Codepoietic Biological Evolution: From The Origin Of Life To Eukaryogenesis
[BioSystems]. Evolution is an intrinsic property of autopoietic systems performing natural computation, which is based on an internal formal self-description representing the arrangement of digital and analog coding structures.
![Schematic illustration of the non-spatial Hash Chemistry model (from [16], with modification). - -[q-bio.PE]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hash-Chemistry.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Hash Chemistry: Minimal Models for Evolutionary Growth of Complexity
[q-bio.PE] Hash Chemistry is a family of minimalistic evolutionary models in which a deterministic hash function assigns a scalar score to entities of arbitrary size, opening a combinatorially vast possibility […]