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All Origins of life articles
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ResearchMystery 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
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Opinion
Chiral curiosities
The challenges posed by asymmetry go hand in hand with fascinating insights into developmental biology
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Research
DNA sugar could form on icy asteroids and comets
Water–methanol ices bombarded with UV simulate conditions found on comets and asteroids
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Research
Surface chemistry for biological questions
Rasmita Raval discusses her career exploring the complex behaviour of molecule–surface systems and what it has to do with antibiotic resistance and the origin of life
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Research
Evidence emerges from the deep of Earth's first amino acids
Geochemical processes shows how buildings blocks for life on Earth may have been synthesised
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Research
Biomarker evidence that Dickinsonia were first animals
Analysis places unusual ovular organism on multicellular branch of phylogenetic tree
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Bubbly protocells bob up and down
Enzymes inflate or consume oxygen bubbles making clay capsules float and sink reversibly
