Life on early Earth seems to have begun with a paradox: while life needs water as a solvent, the essential chemical backbones of early life-forming molecules fall apart in water. Our universal solvent, it turns out, can be ...
Space Exploration
Oct 2, 2017
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There may be no bigger question than whether we are alone in our solar system. As our spacecraft find new clues about the presence of liquid water now or in the past on Mars, the possibility of some kind of life there looks ...
Space Exploration
Sep 29, 2017
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6
An international study led by researchers at Macquarie University has uncovered the ways in which giant meteorite impacts may have helped to kick-start our planet's global tectonic processes and magnetic field. The study, ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 26, 2017
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The Earth's history is written in its elements, but as the tectonic plates slip and slide over and under each other over time, they muddy that evidence—and with it the secrets of why Earth can sustain life.
Earth Sciences
Sep 22, 2017
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613
The primordial soup that sloshed around billions of years ago, and eventually led to first life on our planet, might have been teeming with primal precursors of proteins.
Biochemistry
Sep 4, 2017
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NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which will look for signs of past life on Mars, will use smart methods originally developed to find the oldest life on Earth, according the mission's Deputy Project Scientist, Dr Ken Williford. The ...
Space Exploration
Aug 16, 2017
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12
Computers are simulating the ancestral versions of the most common protein on Earth, giving scientists an unparalleled look at early life's development of harnessing energy from the Sun and production of oxygen.
Earth Sciences
Aug 8, 2017
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16
A new early warning system detecting agricultural production anomaly hotspots was launched at the European Development Days on the 8 June 2017 in Brussels.
Environment
Jun 8, 2017
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8
Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) say the early Earth was likely to be barren, flat and almost entirely under water with a few small islands, following their analysis of tiny mineral grains as old as ...
Earth Sciences
May 8, 2017
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More than 90% of Earth's continental crust is made up of silica-rich minerals, such as feldspar and quartz. But where did this silica-enriched material come from? And could it provide a clue in the search for life on other ...
Earth Sciences
May 5, 2017
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