A new study led by researchers at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo challenges a long-standing assumption about Earth’s most extreme ice ages. Using numerical geochemical […]
How did life originate? Ancient proteins may hold important clues. Every organism on Earth is made up of proteins. Although all organisms — even single-celled ones — have complex protein […]
Lactic acid is not only a major byproduct of primitive synthetic processes such as spark discharge or UV irradiation, it also is a significant player in modern biology.
Human imagination has long been captivated by the pursuit of life outside of Earth. Is life a phenomenon that extends beyond the limits of Earth, or are humans alone in […]
Scientists have begun the search for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System in earnest, but such life may be subtly or profoundly different from Earth-life, and methods based on detecting […]
Before life began on Earth, the environment likely contained a massive number of chemicals that reacted with each other more or less randomly, and it is unclear how things as […]
