Tag

Origin Of Life

All articles tagged with #origin of life

science3 days ago•5 min saved

Ribose-Boron Feedback Loop May Explain How Life’s Genetic Backbone Survived Early Earth

A new study from the University of New South Wales reveals a self-reinforcing chemical loop between ribose and boron that may have stabilized the genetic building blocks of early life. By using natural minerals instead of pure lab compounds, researchers found that ribose helps release boron from calcium-rich rocks, while boron protects ribose from degrading into tar. This mutual protection could have sustained the RNA World Hypothesis, allowing life to emerge from primordial muck.

via ScienceAlert|

#astrobiology #boron #geochemistry

science7 days ago•4 min saved

New Study Challenges Alkaline Hydrothermal Vent Theory for Life's Origin

A new paper by Benjamin Tutolo of the University of Calgary challenges the prevailing theory that life originated at alkaline hydrothermal vents. Tutolo argues that the necessary chemical reactions could not have occurred because the environment only became alkaline after cooling, and reduced sulfur was likely scarce. This development prompts a re-evaluation of alternative hypotheses, including Darwin's warm pond theory, tidal flat cycles, and even panspermia, highlighting the critical need to understand Earth's biological origins to search for life elsewhere.

via Big Think|

#astrobiology #chemical-evolution #hydrothermal-vents

science-tech13 days ago•10 min saved

Ribose and Boron: A Mutual Survival Mechanism in Earth's Prebiotic Chemistry

A new study suggests that ribose, a fragile sugar delivered to Earth by meteorites, may have helped keep boron dissolved in ancient waters. This dissolved boron, in turn, protected ribose from breaking down, creating a mutual survival mechanism that could have facilitated the formation of RNA and the origin of life.

via The Conversation|

#abiogenesis #boron #origin-of-life

science20 days ago•95 min saved

New Model Pinpoints 4.33 Billion-Year-Old Window for Earth’s RNA World

A new study in Nature Communications identifies 4.33 billion years ago as the optimal time for the 'RNA World' to emerge on Earth. Researchers used 3D modeling to show that asteroid bombardment ceased around 4.4 billion years ago, allowing crustal temperatures to stabilize. This window precedes the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) by roughly 130 million years, narrowing the timeline for life’s origins.

via livescience.com|

#early-earth #luca #origin-of-life

science21 days ago•14 min saved

New Model Dates Earth's Shift from Molten Chaos to Life-Supporting Temperatures

A new study published in Nature Communications suggests that Earth became thermally suitable for the emergence of the 'RNA world' approximately 4.33 billion years ago. Researchers used a 3D computer model to simulate the cooling of the planet's crust after the heavy asteroid bombardment of the early solar system. While this narrows the timeline for when life could have begun, it does not account for other necessary chemical conditions, such as the presence of liquid water or specific mineral surfaces.

via Gizmodo|

#early-earth #geology #origin-of-life

science1 month ago•58 min saved

Science’s Enduring Enigmas: 14 Big Questions We Still Can’t Answer

From the true nature of dark matter and the universe’s troubling expansion rate (the Hubble tension) to why matter dominates over antimatter, how life began, whether life is common, and how consciousness emerges, the piece surveys 14 foundational mysteries spanning physics, cosmology, biology, neuroscience, aging, gravity-quantum unification, black holes, fast radio bursts, neutrinos, solar corona heating, earthquake prediction, and deep-ocean unknowns.

via Yahoo|

#antimatter-asymmetry #consciousness #dark-matter

science1 month ago•7 min saved

Earth and Life: A Four-Billion-Year Dialogue

Nature's book review of Andrew Knoll's Earth & Life argues that life and Earth have co-evolved in a four-billion-year dialogue, with geobiology showing how microorganisms and planetary processes shaped Earth's atmosphere, especially oxygen via the Great Oxidation Event; Knoll contends that interpreting Earth's past requires assembling fragmentary rock records, testing hypotheses, and embracing uncertainty, while offering lessons for understanding modern climate change and the search for life on other planets.

via Nature|

#climate-change #earth-history #geobiology

science2 months ago•14 min saved

One Genetic Code, Two Beginnings: A Fresh Take on Life’s Origins

A Science Advances study argues bacteria and archaea inherited one ancient genetic code but independently completed cellular metabolism, effectively yielding one origin of the genetic code and two origins of life. The model suggests LUCA relied on environmental chemistry and metals to drive core reactions, with each lineage later filling in missing metabolism with its own enzymes. Five cases of convergent, structurally distinct enzymes underlie these separate paths. The idea is provocative and tentative, contingent on more archaeal genomes and experiments, and does not imply two abiogenesis events—merely two autonomous metabolic completions after a shared genetic root.

via Space Daily|

#convergent-evolution #hydrothermal-vents #luca

science2 months ago•49 min saved

LUCA Dates Back 4.2 Billion Years, Rewriting the Story of Life

New analysis places LUCA—the Last Universal Common Ancestor—on Earth about 4.2 billion years ago, roughly 400 million years after Earth's formation, based on genetic mutation rates and shared cellular machinery. The study suggests LUCA was a simple prokaryote with an immune system and likely lived in a recycling microbial ecosystem, meaning all modern life traces back to this ancient ancestor, while the exact path from LUCA to later life remains to be fully understood.

via Yahoo|

#biology #evolution #last-universal-common-ancestor

science2 months ago•8 min saved

Two Separate Beginnings: Study Finds Bacteria and Archaea Metabolism Emerged Independently

A Science Advances study proposes life on Earth may have arisen twice, with bacteria and archaea independently evolving metabolism before LUCA, suggesting two roots of life rather than a single lineage; enzymes may have been preceded by environmental metals and four catalytic phases led proto-cells to free-living status after their split.

via ScienceAlert|

#archaea #bacteria #luca

features2 months ago•120 min saved

Abiogenesis: how life may have begun from nonliving matter

Abiogenesis refers to the emergence of life from nonliving matter through chemical processes. While there is no consensus on exactly how it happened on early Earth, theories include lightning-driven chemistry that could form amino acids and sugars and reactions at deep-sea vents. It’s distinct from the older idea of spontaneous generation, which Louis Pasteur disproved in the 1860s by showing microbes arise from preexisting microbes.

via Live Science|

#abiogenesis #chemistry #evolution

science3 months ago•3 min saved

Sugar from space: first interstellar detection hints at life's cosmic origins

Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a Milky Way center molecular cloud (G+0.693−0.027) using the Yebes 40m and IRAM, finding it surprisingly abundant and likely formed in interstellar ices; they estimate 0.5–50 million tonnes could have been delivered to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, suggesting space-made sugars may have helped seed Earth's early metabolism and possibly hinting at other sugars like ribose in space.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|

#astrochemistry #interstellar-space #molecular-cloud

science3 months ago•8 min saved

SpudCells Divide Briefly, Offering Clues About Minimal Life

A Minnesota team built a simplified, membrane-encased system that imports nutrients and uses viral components to copy DNA, creating 'SpudCells' that feed, grow, and undergo a few rounds of division before genome pieces drift and are lost; the division is driven by merging with a food membrane and pore-protein clumping, enabling natural selection in this engineered protocell—useful for studying origin-of-life questions but not a true primitive cell.

via Ars Technica|

#membrane #origin-of-life #protocell

science3 months ago•191 min saved

Researchers Build the First Synthetic Cell From Nonliving Chemistry

Scientists have built SpudCell, a synthetic cell assembled from nonliving chemical components that can feed, grow and replicate for about five generations; though far simpler than natural cells and requiring externally supplied ribosomes, the work marks a milestone in synthetic biology toward understanding life's origins and enabling future bioengineering, with safety safeguards discussed and the core technology to be shared openly via Biotic.

via CNN|

#biosafety #open-source-biology #origin-of-life

science4 months ago•6 min saved

Breathing dirt: six-year metabolism in sterilized soil

Researchers gamma-sterilized soil, sealed it in jars, and observed oxygen consumption and carbon-dioxide production for six years despite no living cells, suggesting metabolism-like chemistry can persist without life and offering clues about prebiotic processes.

via Boing Boing|

#biochemistry #geology #metabolism