Their findings, appearing in Nature Chemistry, suggest that environmental factors played a key role in shaping the molecular complexity needed for life to emerge. To simulate early Earth ...

The earliest days of Earth held secrets that scientists are still trying to uncover. One of the greatest mysteries is how ...

One of humanity’s most profound questions is whether life exists beyond Earth — and if so, what forms it might take. For ...

A prevailing theory in the scientific community, known as the "RNA World" hypothesis, suggests that life may have originally ...

Using computational modeling, a team of scientists explored how working backwards from modern biochemistry could help map out how simple, non-living chemicals present on early Earth gave rise to ...

This prebiotic Earth, however, was filled with a wide array of abiotic organic molecules derived from its early environment ... can uptake salts can provide insights into the relevant functions ...

The search for life on other worlds needs a way to sift through the chemistry of their atmospheres. If another species ...

These insights ... professor of chemistry at Scripps Research. "Other models and options should be explored if we want to understand how these sugar molecules arose on early Earth." ...

Such networks, which would have been common on the early Earth, could have provided a kind ... Can we shape or stop evolution? New insights into nature are providing surprising answers, and ...

In addition to linking planetary processes that were generally thought to be unconnected, the study could reframe scientists' understanding of Earth's early history and provide insight into ...

Thompson, an expert in extraplanetary bodies, chemistry and how they interact with the environment of space, explained that these results help scientists understand the makeup of the early solar ...

A new study explores how complex chemical mixtures change under shifting environmental conditions, shedding light on the prebiotic processes that may have led to life on Earth. In the Painted Desert ...