[Concordia University] A newly identified Arctic Ocean bacterium may have an unusual way of making the building blocks it needs to grow. Using acetone, a common chemical in seawater, the […]
Nature Communications
Posted inTricorders & Sensors
Tricorder Tech: An Electrical Technique For Identifying Signs Of Life In Space
[The University of Osaka] The truth is out there – but identifying signs of life in space involves an intense search for biosignatures within our solar system and beyond. However, […]
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
How Ocean Chemistry On Earth Helped Life Keep Breathing
[UC Riverside] Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago, providing evidence that […]
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy
A Missing Continental Impact Melt Sheet Signal In The Early Earth Detrital Zircon Record
[Nature Communications] Impact-derived melting has been proposed as a significant process in the formation of Earth’s early crust which could mean that impact melts are a source for Earth’s oldest […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
New Study Pinpoints When Early Earth May Have Become Ready for Life’s Chemistry
[PSI] Conditions on the early Earth may have become stable enough to sustain the chemistry associated with the origins of life around 4.33 billion years ago, according to new research […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Comets May Have Transported Water To A Young Planetary System
[Lund University] Astronomers at Lund University in Sweden have found evidence of exocomets – comets in other solar systems – orbiting a young star similar to our Sun. The observations […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Oil Droplets Remodel Themselves, And Swallow Their Surroundings – Like Living Cells
[New York University] NYU researchers have made microscopic oil droplets in water do something usually reserved for living cells: change shape in complex, controllable ways, and even engulf their surroundings.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Sample Return
Discovery Of Unexpectedly Large Organic Molecules from Asteroid Ryugu
Overview Using a high-resolution atomic force microscope ( AFM ), we directly observed the skeletal structures of individual organic molecules extracted from the Ryugu sample. We discovered numerous gigantic organic […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Refining The Clock Of Earth’s Early Complex Animal Life
How can we measure time more than 500 million years into the past? A study recently published in Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Lausanne presents a new […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Radiation, Status Report
Space Ionizing Radiation Triggers The Formation Of Peptides And Organophosphates On Olivine Surfaces
Bioorganic molecules, such as amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars, are widely distributed in space.