Life is complicated. What is true for our everyday existence also holds for the many complex processes that take place inside cells. Proteins constantly have to be synthesized, cell walls […]
origin of life
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Mars, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Could Life Have Started On Mars? Planetary Conditions That Assemble And Destroy Protocells
Early Mars was likely habitable, but could life actually have started there? While cellular life emerged from prebiotic chemistry through a pre-Darwinian selection process relevant to both Earth and Mars, […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Model Suggests How Ancient RNA May Have Gained Self-Cutting Ability Essential for Life
Scientists have long pondered the beginnings of life on Earth. One theory is that RNA, which is ubiquitous across all domains of life, played a central role in early life. […]
Posted inBiophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Did The First Cells Evolve In Soda Lakes?
Soda lakes, which are dominated by dissolved sodium and carbonate species, could have provided the right conditions for the first cells, according to a study.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Self-emergence Of Stational Periodic Arrangement Of Dual Microdroplets Through Quasi One-dimensional Confinement
Polymer systems composed of multiple components can spontaneously induce emulsion or microdroplets by mechanical mixing, as an intermediate state of macroscopic phase separation.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Harnessing Hydrogen At Life’s Origin
A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Sulfur And The Origin Of Life
Many artists have tried to depict what Earth might have looked like billions of years ago, before life made its appearance. Many scenes trade snow-covered mountains for lava-gushing volcanoes and […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report
Relative Contribution From Comets And Carbonaceous Asteroids To Earth’s Volatile Budget In The Context Of An Early Instability
Recent models of solar system formation suggest that a dynamical instability among the giant planets happened within the first 100 Myr after disk dispersal, perhaps before the Moon-forming impact. As […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
How Molecular Handedness Emerged In Early Biology
Molecules often have a structural asymmetry called chirality, which means they can appear in alternative, mirror-image versions, akin to the left and right versions of human hands. One of the […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Modeling The Origins Of Life: New evidence For An RNA World
Charles Darwin described evolution as “descent with modification.” Genetic information in the form of DNA sequences is copied and passed down from one generation to the next. But this process […]