biophysics Archives

Computational Modeling Of An RNA-peptide World

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2026September 25, 2026

[biorxiv.org] Emergence and evolution of functional RNA and protein structures are the central problems for understanding the origin of life.

Early Earth cools as intense bombardment declines. These snapshots from the researchers’ 3D model represent sections of the top 140km of the Earth’s crust and show the thermal effects of impacts at approximately 4.49, 4.45, 4.40, and 4.30 billion years ago. Colors represent modeled temperatures about 4 kilometers below the surface, while circles mark impact craters. As bombardment declined, impact-related heating became much less widespread. Credit: Abramov et al., Nature Communications.

Origin & Evolution of Life

New Study Pinpoints When Early Earth May Have Become Ready for Life’s Chemistry

by Keith CowingSeptember 23, 2026September 23, 2026

[PSI] Conditions on the early Earth may have become stable enough to sustain the chemistry associated with the origins of life around 4.33 billion years ago, according to new research […]

The Quantum-Epigenetic Field (QEF) as an integrating core: four convergent pathways between order and disorder -- Acta Biotheoretica

Biophysics

Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2026September 17, 2026

[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 […]

Structure of the PoXeR monomer (left) and trimer (right) predicted using AlphaFold 3. The trimeric structure was observed from the cytoplasmic side, and the C-terminal tails with low pLDDT scores were omitted. W45 and W130 are labeled according to their residue numbers. -- Nature

Biophysics

How A Deep-sea Protein Adapts To An Extreme Environment

by Keith CowingSeptember 11, 2026September 11, 2026

[Kyushu University] Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea […]

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

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics

Reconstructing Ancient Protein Alphabets: What Can We Truly Infer?

by Keith CowingAugust 8, 2026August 8, 2026

[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 […]

(a) MCM2-7 double-hexamer (DH). (b) DDK-activated MCM2-7 DH in complex with Sld3-Sld7. (c) CDK activity promotes recruitment of helicase activation factors GINS, Polε, Sld2, and Dpb11. (d) Sld2-GINSDpb11-Polε-induced MCM2-7 ATPase-dependent activity results in the splitting of the DH and a rotation of the two CMGE complexes against each other. (e) Mcm10 recruitment promotes DNA extrusion and complete separation of the two hexamers. (f) Extended unwinding promotes the recruitment of Tof1, part of the replication fork protection complex. Loading factors that do not form part of the replication fork are shown in grey. -- Nature

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics

Pinpointing Where Cells First Begin Copying DNA

by Keith CowingJuly 25, 2026July 25, 2026

[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, […]

Astrochemistry

ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) I: Overview

by Keith CowingJuly 21, 2026July 21, 2026

[astro-ph.GA] The mass flows and energy cycles within the inner regions of galaxies exert a powerful influence on the evolution of the galaxy population.

This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) features the central region of the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud, which resides 630 light years away. The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, center) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left). The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them. -- NASA larger image

Astrochemistry

Experimental Astrochemistry And Machine Learning Unravel The Formation Of Oxygen-bearing Organic Molecules In Extraterrestrial Ices

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[Nature Communications Chemistry] Oxygen-bearing organic molecules, including aldehydes, alcohols, and peroxides, serve as key precursors to complex organics in extraterrestrial environments. Their non-equilibrium formation mechanisms critically constrain the molecular complexity […]

Time evolution of the probability distribution of the system for different temperatures as labeled and for fixed parameters: V=106 km3 , L=10 53 erg/s, r=0.01 AU, Grac=26.30 kJ/mol. The vertical axis is enantiomeric excess, and the horizontal axis is time in Myr scale. -- [astro-ph.HE]

Astrochemistry

Supernova Neutrinos And The Origin of Biomolecular Homochirality

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[astro-ph.HE] We investigate the role of parity-violating interactions between supernova neutrinos and chiral molecules in nearby interstellar molecular clouds as a potential source of biomolecular homochirality.

Adsorption of crystals of a biological chiral molecule onto a gold-coated cobalt surface. Larger crystals of one specific form of the molecule (left) tend to accumulate on this surface to a greater degree than those of its mirror-image form (right). In the left image, the crystals reach heights of about 1.2 nm, whereas in the right image they do not exceed 0.8 nm. The physical advantage of one form over the other in accumulating on the magnetic surface suggests that, in a competitive setting, it would become the dominant (“winning”) form. -- Weizmann Institute of Science

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

A Glimpse At The Origins Of Life Through A Deceptive Mirror

by Keith CowingMay 29, 2026May 29, 2026

Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror, only to find that your reflection is governed by different laws than you are: Identical movements produce different outcomes, and what seems like […]