Proteins carry out almost all of life’s cellular functions today, but bacteria sometimes depend instead upon ancient forms of RNA, once viewed merely as the chemical intermediaries between DNA’s instruction manual and the creation of proteins. Now, Yale University researchers have described how bacteria accomplish this feat in the journalScience. Yale’s Ronald Breaker says there […]
Panspermia, the theory that life on Earth may have evolved from simple bacteria that arrived via meteorite is still a hotly debated topic amongst astrobiologists, but an important new discovery indicates that the basic building blocks of life – known as nucleobases – may be a far more likely extraterrestrial contender for kick-starting life on […]
The beginning of life on Earth is a hotly contested area of science (not to mention religion); with current theories focusing on how RNA (ribonucleic acid)-like molecules developed into a more complex form of RNA-based life, which then transformed into cellular life based on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and proteins. Now, an acceleratedin vitro experiment shows […]
