News tagged with origin of life

Researchers make the case that modern life sprang from early mega-organism

(PhysOrg.com) -- A lot of work has been done over the years to nail down the origins of life, with much speculation given to whatever first bit of “life” appeared from what was before, nothing but non-living material. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 28, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (21) | comments 9 | with audio podcast weblog

Meteorite holds clues to organic chemistry of the early Earth: study

(PhysOrg.com) -- Carbonaceous chondrites are a type of organic-rich meteorite that contain samples of the materials that took part in the creation of our planets nearly 4.6 billion years ago, including materials ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Loch fossils show life harnessed sun and sex early on

Remote lochs along the west coast of Scotland are turning up new evidence about the origins of life on land.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 13, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Did clay mould life's origins?

(PhysOrg.com) -- An Oxford University scientist has taken our understanding of the origin of life a step further.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 04, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (22) | comments 27 | with audio podcast

Comets may have brought life to Earth: new study

(PhysOrg.com) -- Life on Earth as we know it really could be from out of this world. New research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists shows that comets that crashed into Earth millions of ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 13, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (21) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Zapping Titan-like atmosphere with UV rays creates life precursors

The first experimental evidence showing how atmospheric nitrogen can be incorporated into organic macromolecules is being reported by a University of Arizona team.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 29, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (17) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Peptides may hold 'missing link' to life

Emory University scientists have discovered that simple peptides can organize into bi-layer membranes. The finding suggests a "missing link" between the pre-biotic Earth's chemical inventory and the organizational ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 06, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Chemical snapshot: Murchison meteorite reveals diversity of early Solar System

(PhysOrg.com) -- New studies of a meteorite that crashed to Earth four decades ago have found it probably contains millions of organic compounds. The findings shed light on the molecular complexity that existed ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 17, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

New research rejects 80-year theory of 'primordial soup' as the origin of life

For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a 'primordial soup' of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the 'soup' theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (37) | comments 30 | with audio podcast

Scientists Reproduce a Building Block of Life in Laboratory

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (28) | comments 0

Scientists propose new hypothesis on the origin of life

The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted by chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953, is the classic experiment on the origin of life. It established that the early Earth atmosphere, as they pictured it, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 04, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (42) | comments 36

Back to basics: Scientists discover a fundamental mechanism for cell organization (w/Video)

Scientists have discovered that cells use a very simple phase transition -- similar to water vapor condensing into dew -- to assemble and localize subcellular structures that are involved in formation of the embryo.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

A salt-free primordial soup?

Most scientists who study the origin of life assume that it occurred in the ocean. But a minority view is that ions in seawater may interfere with prebiotic chemistry, making a freshwater environment more ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rock rafts could be 'cradle of life'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Floating rafts of volcanic pumice could have played a significant role in the origins of life on Earth, scientists from Oxford University and the University of Western Australia have suggested.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Meteorites: Tool kits for creating life on Earth

Meteorites hold a record of the chemicals that existed in the early Solar System and that may have been a crucial source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth. Since the 1960s, scientists have been trying ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 08, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast