Molecules that combine elements of RNA and DNA, so-called chimeric molecules, may have been an important step in the emergence of life on Earth from the primordial ... lifeforms—commonly thought to be ...

Researchers are re-creating early Earth conditions, discovering new RNA activities, and uncovering clues to life in the most ancient rocks. Yet the central role of RNA at life's debut is hardly ...

Almost. Many biologists think that the first life on Earth had instructions encoded not in DNA but in a primitive form of RNA. In this so-called "RNA World," RNA by itself could have played all ...

Soda lakes might hold the key to the emergence of life on Earth. These unique environments could have concentrated the ...

But real lightning would have struck infrequently—and mostly in open ocean, where organic compounds would have quickly ...

A team of scientists just discovered the longest organic molecules yet seen on Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun and and a ...

You’ll go on a journey through billions of years of evolutionary history to see how RNA may have allowed life to form on Earth ... folding game Foldit, the first open online game that lets ...

Scientists have uncovered a surprising role for calcium in shaping the building blocks of life. Their study reveals that calcium ions help determine the molecular 'handedness' (chirality) of tartaric ...

In the first couple billion years of Earth’s existence ... as uracil (a component of DNA and RNA) and glycine (an amino acid)—which are crucial to life’s essential components, including ...

May 2, 2023 — The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds. A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding ...