How molecular 'handedness' emerged in early biology

Molecules often have a structural asymmetry called chirality, which means they can appear in alternative, mirror-image versions akin to the left and right versions of human hands. One of the great mysteries about the origins ...

New findings explain how soil traps plant-based carbon

When carbon molecules from plants enter the soil, they hit a definitive fork in the road. Either the carbon gets trapped in the soil for days or even years, where it is effectively sequestered from immediately entering the ...

Early life was radically different than today

All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged from a simpler, less efficient, more delicate one. But what was that system, and why ...

Nature inspires a new wave of biotechnology

Biological molecules called peptides play a key role in many biological activities, including the transport of oxygen and electrons. Peptides consist of short chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. They are ...

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