As cells perform their everyday functions, they turn on a variety of genes and cellular pathways.
MIT
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Earth Can Regulate Its Own Temperature Over Millennia
The Earth’s climate has undergone some big changes, from global volcanism to planet-cooling ice ages and dramatic shifts in solar radiation. And yet life, for the last 3.7 billion years, […]
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Tricorder Tech: MIT Engineers Build A Battery-free, Wireless Underwater Camera
Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of Earth’s oceans have never been observed, which means we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than we have the far side […]
Posted inVenus
Could Acid-neutralizing Life-forms Make Habitable Pockets In Venus' Clouds?
It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable world than our closest planetary neighbor. With an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, and a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus is […]
Posted inPlant Biology
Zeroing In On The Origins Of Earth's Single Most Important Evolutionary Innovation
Some time in Earth’s early history, the planet took a turn toward habitability when a group of enterprising microbes known as cyanobacteria evolved oxygenic photosynthesis — the ability to turn […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
Complex Carbon-based Molecules Found In Space
Much of the carbon in space is believed to exist in the form of large molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Since the 1980s, circumstantial evidence has indicated that these […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
A Decrease in Sunlight May Have Triggered "Snowball Earths"
At least twice in Earth’s history, nearly the entire planet was encased in a sheet of snow and ice. These dramatic “Snowball Earth” events occurred in quick succession, somewhere around […]
Posted inPress Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Role Of Ocean Microbes In Climate Effects
A new study shows that “hotspots” of nutrients surrounding phytoplankton — which are tiny marine algae producing approximately half of the oxygen we breathe every day — play an outsized […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Earliest Earth Life May Have Arisen In Ponds, Not Oceans
Primitive ponds may have provided a suitable environment for brewing up Earth’s first life forms, more so than oceans, a new MIT study finds. Researchers report that shallow bodies of […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
New Technique Pinpoints Milestones in the Evolution of Bacteria
Bacteria have evolved all manner of adaptations to live in every habitat on Earth. But unlike plants and animals, which can be preserved as fossils, bacteria have left behind little […]