The porous mineral structures of alkaline hydrothermal vent chimneys have been proposed as natural concentrators of dissolved organic molecules, potentially addressing the longstanding dilution problem in deep-sea origin-of-life hypotheses.
Synthetic communication networks are key to engineering life-like behaviors in artificial cells. Inspired by natural quorum sensing, we developed a coacervate-based system that exhibits quorum-sensing-like communication, driven by an autocatalytic […]
Direct chemical synthesis and chemical evolution are conceptually different models for the prebiotic origin of RNA and other biopolymers. These models generate distinct predictions and motivate different experimental approaches.
In the search for reliable biomarkers in other planetary environments such as Mars, molecules that are stable over geological timescales, while preserving indicative information about their potential biological origin, are […]
Experiments exploring potential emergence-of-life chemistry in a laboratory setting critically depend on simulating realistic early-Earth environments. Such experimental conditions include the implementation of controlled high temperatures and pressures, anoxic gas […]
In the Earth system, Phosphorus (P) does not form a single phase, but mostly combines into compounds forming multiple minerals. Phosphate (P+5) is the majority P species in the Earth’s […]
The origin of homochirality in biomolecules is a central problem in the study of the origin of life and is fundamental to understanding the nature of life itself.
A primitive, chemically fueled phosphonodithiolates reaction cascade was constructed using phosphate-based T3P as the chemical fuel and 4-methoxybenzenethiol as the precursor molecule.
We present a physicochemical framework for understanding the emergence of catalytic logic at the origin of life. In this view, early catalytic systems did not depend on genetic encoding or […]
In the search for reliable biomarker in other planetary environments such as Mars, we need molecules that are stable over geological timescales while preserving indicative information about their potential biological […]
