origin of life Archives

Campo del Cielo iron meteorite with natural hole - Wikipedia

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Meteorites & Asteroids, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Meteoritic And Volcanic Particles May Have Promoted Origin Of Life Reactions

by Keith CowingMay 26, 2023

Precursors of the molecules needed for the origin of life may have been generated by chemical reactions promoted by iron-rich particles from meteors or volcanic eruptions on Earth approximately 4.4 […]

Macroscopic snowflake yeast with elongated cells fracture into modules, retaining the same underlying branched growth form of their microscopic ancestor. CREDIT Georgia Institute of Technology

Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

The Origins Of Multicellular Life: Long-term Experimental Evolution In The Lab

by Keith CowingMay 10, 2023May 10, 2023

The world would look very different without multicellular organisms – take away the plants, animals, fungi, and seaweed, and Earth starts to look like a wetter, greener version of Mars. […]

Figure 1 (top) The posterior cumulative distribution function (CDF) of 𝑝𝐿 (the probability of abiogenesis), given the evidence that life exists on Earth, computed from (4). The CDF is a function of the number of habitable worlds (𝑁𝐻 ) in the Milky Way. For reference, the horizontal line represents a cumulative probability of 0.05 and ties in directly with Table 1. Figure 2. (bottom) The posterior cumulative distribution function (CDF) of 𝑝𝐿 (the probability of abiogenesis), given the evidence that life exists on Earth, computed from (4). The CDF is a function of the number of habitable worlds (𝑁𝐻 ) in the Milky Way. For reference, the horizontal line represents a cumulative probability of 0.05 and ties in directly with Table 1. -- astro-ph.EP)

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

Beyond Mediocrity: How Common is Life?

by Keith CowingMay 9, 2023May 9, 2023

The probability that life spontaneously emerges in a suitable environment (abiogenesis) is one of the major unknowns in astrobiology. Assessing its value is impeded by the lack of an accepted […]

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

A Stormy, Active Sun May Have Kickstarted Life On Earth

by Keith CowingMay 2, 2023May 2, 2023

The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds.

A new hypothesis states that the first sugars emerged from glyoxylate (pictured as the center molecule). In this hypothesis, glyoxylate first reacts with itself and then the byproducts from these reactions, ultimately forming simple sugars and other products (pictured as the surrounding molecules). CREDIT Scripps Research and Unsplash

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

Where Did The First Sugars Come From?

by Keith CowingApril 13, 2023April 13, 2023

Two prominent origin-of-life chemists have published a new hypothesis for how the first sugars—which were necessary for life to evolve—arose on the early Earth.

A representative texture of the Ryugu particle (A0022). (a) An optical image of an entire view of the particle. The rough and irregular surface is finely cracked, resulting in the particle being fragile in nature. (b) A back-scattered electron image of a cross section of the particle. Several µm to 10’s of µm-sized carbonates (mainly dolomite), Fe-oxides (e.g., magnetite), and Fe-sulfides (e.g., pyrrhotite) are widespread in the phyllosilicate-dominated matrix (smectite and serpentine), which also includes sub-µm-sized organic matter, Fe-sulfide, carbonate, and phosphate minerals. -- Okayama University

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

How Were Amino Acids Formed Before The Origin Of Life On Earth?

by Keith CowingApril 5, 2023April 5, 2023

Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse […]

Secondary structure of the tt_A1P1 construct predicted by mfold (Zuker, 2003). With a ΔG of -64.30 Kcal/mol. Thermus thermophilus numbering system is used. According to this prediction base paring shift occur in H74, H89 and H90. The overall shape of H90 has grown by at least three base pairs at the beginning of the helix compared to the secondary structure of the extant ribosome. -- PNAS

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

How To Build A Protoribosome

by Keith CowingApril 1, 2023April 1, 2023

NASA-supported scientists have reexamined some previous assumptions about how the ribosome in living cells is constructed. The ribosome is a large molecule found in all living cells that catalyzes the […]

Synthesis of BaTP. Scheme depicting various steps in the chemical synthesis of the prebiotic genetic alphabet Barbitudine and its corresponding triphosphate Barbitudine triphosphate (BaTP) 44 -- biorxiv

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

A Prebiotic Genetic Alphabet As An Early Darwinian Ancestor For Pre-RNA Evolution

by Keith CowingMarch 24, 2023March 24, 2023

RNA-based genetic code is thought to be central to life’s emergence due to its dual ability for information transfer and catalysis. Nonetheless, the genetic code of early life was potentially […]

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

How Did Life Emerge in Chemically Complex Messy Environments?

by Keith CowingMarch 11, 2023March 11, 2023

One of the problems that make it difficult to solve the mystery of the origin of life is determining how life emerged in chemically complex messy environments on primitive Earth.

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

Early Earth Life: Oxidative Phosphorus Chemistry Perturbed By Minerals

by Keith CowingMarch 11, 2023March 11, 2023

Life is a complex, open chemical system that must be supported with energy inputs. If one fathoms how simple early life must have been, the complexity of modern-day life is […]