All Origins of life articles
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ResearchAlgorithm discovers how six simple molecules could evolve into life’s building blocks
Program shows how micelles, catalysts and self-replicating chemical systems emerge from abiotic precursors
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Feature
Unnatural selection in chemical systems
Great strides have been made in the lab with chemical systems that ape life’s behaviour
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Research
Simple lipid networks combine self-assembly, replication, competition and inhibition
Artificial cells have previously lacked the complexity that is distinct to natural life but scientists are edging closer
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Research
Self-replicating molecules show signs of metabolism for the first time
Chemical system combines two of life’s three essential features making it one of the most lifelike yet
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Opinion
Making light of bioluminescence
Glowing may be a side-effect of a very different original purpose
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Research
Mystery of where early Earth’s life-fuelling phosphates came from may have been solved
Meteorites have been source of building blocks for primordial life
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Research
Chemical stimulus used to trigger synthetic cell division
Mother vesicle that divides into two smaller daughter vesicles could be a plausible model of primitive cells
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Research
Computer says no to membrane-bound life on Titan
Scientists quash inside–out cell membrane theory but don’t completely rule out possibility of life on cryogenic liquid hydrocarbon worlds
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Research
Unified synthesis shows how genetic alphabet could have been put together on early Earth
Cycles of wet and then dry conditions provide the right conditions to make all the nucleobases from basic chemicals
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Research
Why does all life use the same 20 amino acids?
Chemical properties offer an answer to why nature limits itself to so few protein building blocks
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Research
Bubbly beginnings for life's first molecules
Gas bubble simulations support the idea that life began in hydrothermal vents
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Research
Microdroplets’ chemical wizardry could have given life a helping hand
Droplet reduction may shed light on puzzles of the prebiotic era and offer a new way to do green chemistry
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Research
Resurrected enzyme aces cellulose catalysis
Protein that survived extreme conditions on early Earth could be a boon for biofuel industry
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Research
Impact of extra-terrestrial glycine delivery could have created nucleobase precursors
Quantum simulations show that comets and other celestial bodies may have not only delivered building blocks for life to Earth, but also synthesised them on impact
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Research
Mineral surfaces promoted variation in prebiotic RNA
Thermodynamic model probes the entropic cost of enriching RNA strands adsorbed on a surface
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Research
Eight-letter genetic code hints at how alien life might evolve
Synthetic DNA shows that four bases might not be the only way for life to go
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Research
Synthetic molecules fold up into abiotic proteins
Compound that self-assembles into giant folded ring could help scientists design bespoke abiotic proteins
