origin of life Archives

This image taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole drilled in a Martian rock in preparation for the rover's first attempt to collect a sample. It was taken by one of the rover’s hazard cameras in what the rover's science team has nicknamed a "paver rock" in the "Crater Floor Fractured Rough" area of Jezero Crater. CREDIT NASA/JPL-Caltech

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures, Tricorders & Sensors

Did Life Exist On Mars? Other Planets? With AI’s Help, We May Know Soon

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2023September 25, 2023

Scientists have discovered a simple and reliable test for signs of past or present life on other planets – “the holy grail of astrobiology.”

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

New Recipes For The Origin Of Life May Point The Way To Distant, Inhabited Planets

by Keith CowingSeptember 19, 2023September 19, 2023

Life requires repetition of chemical reactions. Describing the kinds of reactions and conditions required for self-sustaining repetition — called autocatalysis — could focus the search for life on other planets.

Comprehensive array of experimental and computational techniques, along with conceptual bridges, which are primarily utilised in OoL studies. -- q-bio.PE

Astrobiology (general), Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

What It Takes To Solve The Origin(s) Of Life: An Integrated Review Of Techniques

by Keith CowingSeptember 11, 2023September 11, 2023

Understanding the origin(s) of life (OoL) is a fundamental challenge for science in the 21st century. Research on OoL spans many disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology, planetary sciences, computer science, […]

Effect of temperature on the peptide aggregation process. Left: side view of (ODAP—STEP) bilayer systems with peptides at 0 ns (a) and 500 ns at 353 K (b), 338 K (c), and 323 K (d); KSPFPFAA peptides are shown in mauve, while ODAP and STEP are in gray and green, respectively. Right: number of the clusters as a function of time formed during the 500 ns MD simulation with cutoff 0.6 nm at 353 K (e) (previously reported by the authors in Ref. [44]), 338 K (f), and 323 (g) -- Life

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Structural Phenomena in a Vesicle Membrane Obtained through an Evolution Experiment: A Study Based on MD Simulations

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2023September 6, 2023

The chemical evolution of biomolecules was clearly affected by the overall extreme environmental conditions found on Early Earth.

The ciliated protozoan Paramecium caudatum. -- Wikipedia

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

A Definition Schema For Life Level And Some Associated Models

by Keith CowingAugust 16, 2023August 16, 2023

We present a mathematical definition schema for measuring life level that is to give options to describe how much a (generalized) organism is alive. It is just a definition schema, […]

A general progression of the origin and early evolution of life and the scientific approaches that address each stage. The Protobiological Geochemistry stage, sometimes referred to as protometabolism or chemical evolution, depicts abiotic chemistry in a geochemical context that produced complex organic compounds and prebiotic macromolecules. The Early Genetic Inheritance/Simple Protocells stage depicts an early lifeform with a simple genetic system such as proposed by the RNA World hypothesis encapsulated within membranes that form and divide spontaneously. The Early Cellular Life stage depicts organisms with the level of complexity similar to that of the LUCA. While this final stage may be studied through so-called top–down methods, earlier stages may only be accessed through nonhistorical bottom–up approaches. -- PNAS

Astrobiology (general), Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Scientists Outline A New Strategy For Understanding The Origin Of Life

by Keith CowingAugust 15, 2023August 15, 2023

Despite decades of progress, the origin of life remains one of the great unsolved problems in science. “The most basic features of biology, that organisms are made of cells, that […]

A hexagonal fossil pattern in sedimentary rocks analysed by Curiosity on the 3154th day of its journey through the Gale Crater on Mars. CREDIT NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/IRAP/Rapin et al./Nature

Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs

Mars: New Evidence Of An Environment Conducive To The Emergence Of Life

by Keith CowingAugust 11, 2023August 11, 2023

The surface of Mars, unlike the Earth’s, is not constantly renewed by plate tectonics. This has resulted in the preservation of huge areas of terrain remarkable for their abundance in […]

A new model describes the self-organization of catalysts involved in metabolic cycles. Different species of catalysts (represented by different colors) form clusters and can chase each other. CREDIT MPI-DS / LMP

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Exploring The Origins Of Life

by Keith CowingAugust 4, 2023August 4, 2023

One possible scenario for the origin of life is the spontaneous organization of interacting molecules into cell-like droplets. These molecular species would form the first self-replicating metabolic cycles, which are […]

Scientists believe the near-shore environment is where most organic carbon is buried.

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Nature’s Kitchen: How A Chemical Reaction Used By Cooks Helped Create Life On Earth

by Keith CowingAugust 2, 2023August 2, 2023

A chemical process used in the browning of food to give it its distinct smell and taste is probably happening deep in the oceans, where it helped create the conditions […]

Simulated composition and climate of the Hadean atmosphere after a 1.58 × 1021 kg impactor that produces 7.0 bars of H2 once vaporized ocean water condenses. We use the Table 2 model parameters. The blue shaded region labeled “hot steam atmosphere”, also called Phase 2 in Figure 1, is simulated by the kinetics-climate model described in Appendix B. After this time-period, during Phase 3 of a post-impact atmosphere, we evolve the atmosphere with 1-D photochemical-climate model (Appendix C), which maintains 0.018 bar of CH4 between 4×103 and ∼ 106 years. Dashed lines are referenced to the right-hand axis. “HCN rainout” is HCN molecules raining out in droplets of water. “HCCCN haze rainout” is the rainout rate of HCCCN incorporated into particles formed from the reaction C4H + HCCCN → polymer. CH4 and N2 photochemistry generates HCN and HCCCN for about one million years until H2 escapes to space. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Origin Of Life Molecules In The Atmosphere After Big Impacts On The Early Earth

by Keith CowingJuly 19, 2023July 19, 2023

The origin of life on Earth would benefit from a prebiotic atmosphere that produced nitriles, like HCN, which enable ribonucleotide synthesis. However, geochemical evidence suggests that Hadean air was relatively […]