Origins of life – Page 5
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OpinionPolymer amphiphiles could help reveal the origins of life
Spontaneous shapes and reactions to light may explain how protocells form
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FeatureShedding light on the dark proteome
Around half of all human proteins are a mystery. What do they look like, asks Phil Ball
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ResearchSynthetic cells pass bacterial Turing test
Chemical communication offers a way to determine how lifelike an artificial cell is
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ResearchRiddle of life’s origin may be answered by dividing protocells
Model suggests simple chemical systems could grow and reproduce and could have got life off to a flying start
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ResearchGooey origins for RNA world
Viscous muddy pond edges may have been incubators for the rise of self-replicating RNAs on ancient Earth
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ResearchPrimitive synthetic cells get a taste for each other
Predatory protocells offer insight into how such behaviours may have arisen at the dawn of life
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ResearchNucleic acid instability challenges RNA world hypothesis
Early life may have contained both RNA and DNA, rather than just RNA
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Research3.7 billion year old microbe fossils discovered in Greenland
Discovery puts earliest evidence for life back 220 million years
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OpinionWhat's the point of synthesising the human genome?
A plan to build our genome from scratch should be challenged on its scientific merit, not whether it is creating life, argues Philip Ball
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OpinionHow game theory could explain complex life
Philip Ball asks if the building blocks of life benefit from cooperation
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ResearchMeteorite compounds hint at origins of life’s asymmetry
Excess of right handed sugar derivatives found on meteorites suggests homochirality may have come from space
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ResearchAdenine and guanine synthesised using prebiotic pathway
Two of the nucleotide bases that make up genetic material have been formed in early Earth simulation experiments
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ResearchBroken ribozyme comes to life
Low temperatures on early Earth may have helped RNA world organisms emerge
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ResearchBuilding blocks of life made in space ice simulations
Complex sugars – including the ‘backbone’ of RNA – have been created in lab-made interstellar ice
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ResearchLifting molecular brake may have kept primeval cells running
Removing RNA restriction can steady biochemical function, with relevance for life’s emergence
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PodcastChemistry World podcast – December 2015
This month, we learn how to leave the calories out of fine chocolate, and discover the earth might be older than we thought
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FeatureThe origin of homochirality
Why do so many biological molecules exist in just one chirality – and how did it emerge? Rachel Brazil reflects on life’s strange asymmetry
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ResearchAncient graphite may push start of life back by 300 million years
Discovery of biologically forged carbon could rewrite textbooks on the earliest organisms
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Research‘Chemical search engine’ backs alternative route to life
Spontaneous peptide formation conditions found using automated system
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ResearchStudy probes role of chemical corruption in origin of life
Researchers deliberately embrace defective chemistry to paint more realistic prebiotic picture