Membranes are usually treated as passive containers in origin-of-life models, confining prebiotic chemistry, buffering diffusion, and sustaining gradients.
membrane
Posted inAstropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
A Modular 3D-Printed Design To Investigate Prebiotic Chemical Systems In Hot Spring Pools
The emergence of protocells, membranous compartments with encapsulated genetic material, was a crucial step in life’s origin and evolution. The hot spring hypothesis for the origin of life suggests that […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors
Membrane-Spanning Molecular Lengths as an Agnostic Biosignature
We explore a hypothesis in which the detection of classes of lipid-like molecules with similar abundance-averaged lengths would constitute a biosignature for other worlds.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
How Membranes May Have Brought About The Chemistry Of Life On Earth
How life arose remains a looming question in science that researchers are seeking to answer by studying the features shared among life today. Everything alive is made up of cells, […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
How Life’s Building Blocks Took Shape On Early Earth: The Limits of Membraneless Polyester Protocell Formation
One leading theory on the origins of life on Earth proposes that simple chemical molecules gradually became more complex, ultimately forming protocells—primitive, non-living structures that were precursors of modern cells.