The Great Filter hypothesis proposes that the emergence of technological societies capable of interstellar travel depends on a small number of exceptionally hard and highly improbable steps.
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Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Deep-time Consistency In Proteome Elemental Composition Across Cellular And Viral Life
Proteins are constructed from a limited alphabet of ~20 amino acids, yet the origins and selection of this specific alphabet are unresolved.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Meteorites & Asteroids, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Heuristic Model On The Origin Of The Homochirality Of Life
Life demonstrates remarkable homochirality of its major building blocks: nucleic acids, amino acids, sugars, and phospholipids. We propose a mechanism that places the root of life homochirality in the formation […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Milestones At The Origin of Life
Living organisms have some common structures, chemical reactions and molecular structures. The organisms consist of cells with cell division, they have homochirality of protein and carbohydrate units, and metabolism, and […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Reconstructing Early Microbial Life
For more than 3.5 billion years, life experienced dramatic environmental extremes on Earth. These include shifts from oxygen-less to over-oxygenated atmospheres and cycling between hothouse conditions and global glaciations.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Constructing the Molecular Tree of Life using Assembly Theory and Mass Spectrometry
The connected nature of all life on earth, dating back to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), has been explored using knowledge of taxonomy and biochemistry, with significant insights enabled […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
What Doesn’t Kill Gaia Makes Her Stronger
Life on Earth has experienced numerous upheavals over its approximately 4 billion year history. In previous work we have discussed how interruptions to stability lead, on average, to increases in […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Status Report
Energy-ordered Resource Stratification As An Agnostic Signature Of Life
The search for extraterrestrial life hinges on identifying biosignatures, often focusing on gaseous metabolic byproducts as indicators. However, most such biosignatures require assuming specific metabolic processes.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Cosmic Radiation Drives Quasi-periodic Changes In The Diversity Of Siliceous Marine Microplankton
Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations.
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Is the Emergence Of Life An Expected Phase Transition In The Evolving Universe?
We propose a novel definition of life in terms of which its emergence in the universe is expected, and its ever-creative open-ended evolution is entailed by no law. Living organisms […]