All Origins of life articles
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OpinionCracking codons
Understanding how chemistry links RNA triplets to the properties of amino acids
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Opinion
From prebiotic soup to fine-grained RNA world
Theories about how life emerged need to be closely attuned to conditions on the early Earth
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Opinion
Is there a natural order in which complex objects appear?
Assembly theory suggests there might be
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Research
Life’s handedness could have arisen spontaneously on Earth
New insight into the origins of homochirality point to adaptation to energy sources as driver
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Research
Freeze–thaw cycles could explain how ancient RNA replicated without enzymes
Discovery solves puzzle of RNA world hypothesis
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Feature
How protocells bridge the gap from chemistry to biology
Rachel Brazil talks to the scientists trying to recreate what the first cells were like, or to make their own versions
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Opinion
Ned Seeman’s legacy
A system based on DNA ‘tiles’ can embody Darwinian evolution, raising new possibilities for understanding natural selection and materials development
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Research
Glassware found to promote reactions in Miller–Urey 'primordial soup' experiment
By running their famous 1952 experiment in glass flasks, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey might have unintentionally simulated the role of rocks on early Earth
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Research
Ultraphosphates break decades-old anti-branching rule
Discovery of elusive branched phosphates’ unexpected stability means they could have played a role in prebiotic chemistry
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Research
Adding constraints to understand life’s chemical origins
Matt Powner wants to know if there are chemical rules that govern why certain synthetic strategies are embedded in biology
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Research
Lightning may have created essential building blocks for life on Earth
Reduced phosphorus material discovered in geological sample offers insight into life’s origins
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Research
Mission accomplished for scientist who set out to bring astrobiology to Portugal
Zita Martins discusses her work searching for molecules related to the origin of life
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Research
Steroid fossilisation discovery opens new chapter in debate around oldest animal
Are the biomolecules found in 635-million-year-old rocks the earliest evidence of animal life or just plant remnants?
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Research
Algorithm 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
