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Hot Topic
Origins
Origin & Evolution of Life
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Meteorites Made Life Left-Handed
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
04/08/08 |
| Scientists have provided evidence that the building blocks of life could have formed from the interactions of desert heat, water and meteorite impacts. The findings may also explain why amino acids used by life are predominantly 'left-handed'. |
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Following the Paper Trail of Ancient Life
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
04/02/08 |
| Researchers have found the earliest direct evidence of biological material on Earth in the form of cellulose microfibers. The finding also indicates that cellulose could be an excellent biosignature to search for on other planets. |
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Missing Molybdenum
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
03/30/08 |
| Scientists have reconstructed changes in the Earth's ancient ocean chemistry in order to learn more about the connections between the environment of Earth and the evolution of life. |
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How Did Life Get Started?
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
03/10/08 |
| How did life get started? A growing body of evidence favors an "RNA World" as an early stage of life, before DNA assumed its present role as the molecule that stores genetic information. |
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Viruses Stay Local
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
03/08/08 |
| Biologists examining ecosystems similar to those that existed on Earth more than 3 billion years ago have made a surprising discovery: Viruses that infect bacteria are sometimes parochial and unrelated to their counterparts in other regions of the globe. It's surprising because bacteria and the viruses that affect them were long believed to be cosmopolitan, having similar genetic histories across the globe. |
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Giving Life a Hand
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
03/05/08 |
| Researchers may have unlocked important clues about the origin of life. They have shown that precursor molecules for life may naturally appear more often in 'left-handed' forms than previously thought. |
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Frog from Hell
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
02/22/08 |
| The remains of the largest frog ever seen have been discovered in Madagascar. The finding links a group of frogs that lived 65 to 70 million years ago with modern frogs in South America, and are helping scientists understand how the landmasses of Earth have shifted over time. |
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Dinosaur Digestion
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
02/08/08 |
| Scientists are trying to determine which plants dinosaurs dined on more than 100 million years ago. Their findings could help us understand the environmental and physiological conditions that allowed dinosaurs to grow so large. |
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The Birth of Birds
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
02/07/08 |
| Molecular evidence indicates that modern birds may have originated 100 million years ago - before the demise of the dinosaurs. The finding touches on current questions about which scientific methods are most useful in studying the evolution of life on Earth. |
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Life's Link to Lost City
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| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
02/03/08 |
| New research shows that molecules important for the origin of life are generated by simple interactions between seawater and hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. The findings support the theory that such vents may have played a role in life's beginnings on Earth. |
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