Evidence arguing for a “whiff of oxygen” before the Earth’s Great Oxygenation Event 2.3 billion years ago are chemical signatures that were probably introduced at a much later time, according […]
origin of life
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Life Arose On Hydrogen Energy
How did the first chemical reactions get started at the origin of life and what was their source of energy? Researchers at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have reconstructed […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Geoastronomy: Rocky Planets As The Lavosier-Lomonosov Bridge From The Non-living To The Living World
Life on Earth emerged at the interface of the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. This setting serves as our basis for how biological systems originate on rocky planets. Often overlooked, however, […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Gas Bubbles In Rock Pores – A Nursery For Life On Early Earth
Munich and Dresden based researchers create compelling scenario for the evolution of membraneless microdroplets as the origin of life. Where and how did life begin on Early Earth more than […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Physicists Discover How Particles Self-assemble
A team of physicists has discovered how DNA molecules self-organize into adhesive patches between particles in response to assembly instructions. Its findings offer a “proof of concept” for an innovative […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Scientists Find Molecular Patterns That May Help Identify Extraterrestrial Life
Scientists have begun the search for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System in earnest, but such life may be subtly or profoundly different from Earth-life, and methods based on detecting […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The Preconditions For Life On Earth Existed 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Microbial life already had the necessary conditions to exist on our planet 3.5 billion years ago. This was the conclusion reached by a research team after studying microscopic fluid inclusions […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Death Enables Complexity In Chemical Evolution
Simple systems can reproduce faster than complex ones. So, how can the complexity of life have arisen from simple chemical beginnings? Starting with a simple system of self-replicating fibres, chemists […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Origin of life – The Chicken-And-The-Egg Problem
A Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich team has shown that slight alterations in transfer-RNA molecules (tRNAs) allow them to self-assemble into a functional unit that can replicate information exponentially. tRNAs are […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology
The Record Of Early Life Could Be Full Of "False Positives"
For most of Earth’s history, life was limited to the microscopic realm, with bacteria occupying nearly every possible niche. Life is generally thought to have evolved in some of the […]