Where did the first sugars come from?

Two prominent origin-of-life chemists have published a new hypothesis for how the first sugars—which were necessary for life to evolve—arose on the early Earth.

How much cadmium is contained in cocoa beans?

Cocoa beans can absorb toxic heavy metals such as cadmium from the soil. Some cultivation areas, especially in South America, are polluted with these heavy metals, in some cases considerably. In combining different X-ray ...

Examining the role of 'blind dating' in bacteria evolution

Proteins are the key players for virtually all molecular processes within the cell. To fulfill their diverse functions, they have to interact with other proteins. Such protein-protein interactions are mediated by highly complementary ...

Basic science shows how a single mutation causes ataxia

Worldwide, only a handful of patients are known to suffer from episodic ataxia type 6, a neurological disease that causes transient loss of muscle control. The cause lies in a mutation that changes a single amino acid in ...

Molecular precursors to life discovered in the Perseus Cloud

Susan Iglesias-Groth, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Martina Marín-Dobrincicof the Polytechnic University of Cartagena have discovered the presence of numerous prebiotic molecules in the star formation ...

page 18 from 40