In 1924, Russian biochemist Alexander Oparin claimed that life on Earth developed through gradual chemical changes of organic molecules, in the “primordial soup” which likely existed on Earth four billion […]
origin of life
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Why Life on Earth First Got Big
Some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the earliest animals to exist – got big not to compete for food, but to spread their offspring […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
A Simple Chemical Process May Have Led To The Origin Of Life On Earth
Research has shown that reactions of alpha-hydroxy acids, similar to the alpha-amino acids that make up modern proteins, form large polymers easily under conditions presumed prevalent on early Earth. These […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
How Primordial Life On Earth Might Have Replicated Itself
Scientists have created a new type of genetic replication system which demonstrates how the first life on Earth – in the form of RNA – could have replicated itself. The […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Brewing Up Earth's Earliest Life
Around 4 billion years ago, Earth was an inhospitable place, devoid of oxygen, bursting with volcanic eruptions, and bombarded by asteroids, with no signs of life in even the simplest […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Two-billion-year-old Salt Rock Reveals The Rise of Oxygen in Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
A 2-billion-year-old chunk of sea salt provides new evidence for the transformation of Earth’s atmosphere into an oxygenated environment capable of supporting life as we know it. The study by […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Chemists Discover Plausible Recipe For Early Life On Earth
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a fascinating new theory for how life on Earth may have begun. Their experiments, described today in the journal Nature Communications, […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Was The Primordial Soup a Hearty Pre-protein Stew?
The primordial soup that sloshed around billions of years ago, and eventually led to first life on our planet, might have been teeming with primal precursors of proteins. Ancestors of […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Did Life Begin On Land Rather Than In The Sea?
A paradigm-shifting hypothesis laid out by UC Santa Cruz astrobiologists David Deamer and Bruce Damer could reshape our idea about the origin of life For three years, Tara Djokic, a […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Did Life Start More Than Once on Earth?
Conditions suitable to support complex life may have developed in Earth’s oceans — and then faded — more than a billion years before life truly took hold, a new University […]