Chemists say they have solved a crucial problem in a theory of life’s beginnings, by demonstrating that RNA molecules can link short chains of amino acids together. The findings, published on 11 May ...

Oceans churned with lava. Air filled thick with smoke. Asteroids stormed down incessantly. Life during the Hadean Eon four billion years ago was a struggle, and yet that was when it began. 1,2 With no ...

According to a new concept by LMU chemists led by Thomas Carell, it was a novel molecular species composed out of RNA and peptides that set in motion the evolution of life into more complex forms ...

Viroids are tiny strands of circular, infectious RNA. They differ from viruses in that they do not have a protective protein coat and that they do not encode any proteins of their own. They are also ...

New research suggests life began with a chimeric mix of RNA and DNA. This would explain a longstanding puzzle, because pure RNA is hard to split apart. Enzyme-free RNA transmission could have ...

Liquid brine veins, where RNA molecules can replicate, surround solid ice crystals in water ice, as seen with an electron microscope. Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have ...

There are a number of theories about how life began on Earth, but one new study published October 3 in ACS Nano suggests that the building blocks of life could have been created with liquid crystals.