An international team of scientists have shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can form under the harsh conditions that govern chemistry in space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-blocks-life-stars.html…
Tag: amino acid
A Tiny Space Rock Holds Clues About the Evolution of Life
Back in 2012, a team of Japanese and Belgian researchers in Antarctica found a golf ball-sized space rock resting in the snow. Now, NASA astronauts have had a chance to study a piece of that meteorite, Asuka 12236, and they say it may hold new clues about the development of life. From a report: Inside the meteorite, astrobiologists from NASA’s Goddard…
Physical Force Alone Spurs Gene Expressions, Study Reveals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Cells will ramp up gene expression in response to physical forces alone, a new study finds. Gene activation, the first step of protein production, starts less than one millisecond after a cell is stretched — hundreds of times faster than chemical signals can travel, the researchers report. The scientists tested forces that are…
Have the first proteins been found in meteorites?
Researchers say they’ve discovered the first complete proteins inside 2 meteorites. It’s tantalizing, since proteins play a key role in the cells of living creatures. But will the results hold up to scrutiny? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/proteins-amino-acids-meteorites-acfer-086-and-allende-origin-of-life…