The emergence of molecules essential for life on Earth is a major question for science. A recent advance shows that amino ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Amino acids are fundamental building blocks of life. These ...

Did life’s predilection for so-called “left-handed” amino acids evolve as a quirk of prebiotic chemistry here on Earth? Or did biomolecules’ reliance on single “chirality” or handedness actually have ...

Penn State researchers think a key ingredient for life may have formed in deep freeze, not in a warm asteroid puddle. A space sample with a new twistScientists at Penn State; led by geoscientist ...

Tiny grains of dust from asteroid Bennu are reshaping how scientists think life’s ingredients formed in space.

Dust from asteroid Bennu is revealing a surprising origin story for life’s building blocks. New research suggests some amino acids formed in frozen ice exposed to radiation, not warm liquid water as ...

The discovery is just the latest to come from the asteroid sample, which dates back to the dawn of the solar system.

Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse of the molecular cloud, ...

Amino acids, the building blocks necessary for life, were previously found in samples of 4.6-billion-year-old rocks from an ...

Life on Earth is complex and varied, but every living organism on the planet builds its proteins from the same set of 20 amino acids. All proteins in a human body, for example, are made up of some ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...