RNA reactor could have served as a precursor of life

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nobody knows quite how life originated on Earth, but most scientists agree that living cells did not abruptly appear from nonliving cells in a single step. Instead, there were probably a series of pre-cellular ...

Namibia sponge fossils are world's first animals: study

Scientists digging in a Namibian national park have uncovered sponge-like fossils they say are the first animals, a discovery that would push the emergence of animal life back millions of years.

Switchable Nanostructures Made with DNA

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a new way to use a synthetic form of DNA to control the assembly of nanoparticles — this time resulting in switchable, ...

Keeping time: Circadian clocks

Our planet was revolving on its axis, turning night into day every 24 hours, for 4.5 billion years - long before any form of life existed here. About a billion years later, the very first simple bacterial cells came into ...

A microbe's membrane helps it survive extreme environments

Within harsh environments like hot springs, volcanic craters and deep-sea hydrothermal vents – uninhabitable by most life forms – microscopic organisms are thriving. How? It's all in how they wrap themselves.

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