Life on Earth uses DNA as the central template for self-replication, genetic encoding, and information transfer.
genetics
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Astrochemistry: The Mystery of Life’s Handedness Deepens
The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Sample Return, Status Report
Living Microbes Discovered In Earth’s Driest Desert
The Atacama Desert, which runs along the Pacific Coast in Chile, is the driest place on the planet and, largely because of that aridity, hostile to most living things. Not […]
Posted inAstronauts and Explorers, Commercial & Private Sector, Education and Outreach, Exploration Gear & Tech, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microgravity, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release, Space Life Science, Space Stations, Tricorders & Sensors
Tricorder Update: Genes in Space Student-designed Experiment Conducted By Astronauts
On Saturday, September 28th, an experiment designed by Genes in Space 2023 contest winner (18) of Hillsborough, California, launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard NASA’s Crew-9 mission. The […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Status Report
Autocatalytic Assembly Of A Chimeric Aminoacyl-RNA Synthetase Ribozyme
Autocatalytic reactions driving the self-assembly of biological polymers are important for the origin of life, yet few experimental examples of such reactions exist.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Compositional Diversity Of Minimal Coacervates In A Nucleic Acid-peptide World
The early co-evolution of RNA and peptides is at the core of the RNA-peptide world hypothesis. Recent studies suggest that nucleotides and amino acids could have formed and polymerised non-enzymatically […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Earth Life’s Genetic Alphabet Has Been Expanded To Create Novel Proteins
It’s a dogma taught in every introductory biology class: Proteins are composed of combinations of 20 different amino acids, arranged into diverse sequences like words. But researchers trying to engineer […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
RNA World: Overcoming Nucleotide Bias In The Nonenzymatic Copying Of RNA Templates
The RNA World hypothesis posits that RNA was the molecule of both heredity and function during the emergence of life.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronauts and Explorers, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Space Life Science, Space Physiology & Medicine, Status Report
The Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) and International Astronaut Biobank
Spaceflight induces molecular, cellular and physiological shifts in astronauts and poses myriad biomedical challenges to the human body, which are becoming increasingly relevant as more humans venture into space.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Status Report
Self‐Replication Without Hydrogen‐Bonds: An Exobiotic Design
Life on Earth uses DNA as the central template for self‐replication, genetic encoding, and information transfer.