|
|
Hot Topic
Origins
Origin & Evolution of Life
|
|
| |
|
|
Fungus Time Machine
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
01/09/08 |
| A protein from a primitive fungus has provided scientists with important insights into how life evolved from the simple to the complex. The finding is allowing scientists to understand how the inter-relations between important functional molecules in organisms developed over time. |
|
|
|
|
The Avalon Explosion
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
01/08/08 |
| Scientists have identified a new period in Earth´s history where life experienced an evolutionary explosion. Dubbed the ‘Avalon Explosion´, this period occurred about 33 million years prior to the previously identified ‘Cambrian Explosion´, and sheds further light on the early evolution of animals. |
|
|
|
|
|
What Bugged the Dinosaurs
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
01/06/08 |
| Asteroid impacts and massive volcanic flows occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new book argues that the world´s mightiest creatures may have been brought down by tiny, disease-carrying insects. |
|
|
|
|
|
Molecules in Mica
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
12/07/07 |
| A new hypothesis describes how life may have begun in ancient oceans, protected inside layers of the mineral mica. These narrow, confined spaces may have provided the perfect conditions for the origin of biomolecules. |
|
|
|
|
|
Liquid Crystal Life
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
11/30/07 |
| Scientists studying ultrashort DNA molecules have provided a new scenario for how life may have originated on Earth. The team found that short segments of DNA are able to assemble into distinct liquid crystal phases. The research may help us understand how life could have originated from segments of DNA-like molecules. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bugs Bigger Than Man
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
11/25/07 |
| Scientists have discovered a 390 million year old fossil of a sea scorpion that, when alive, would have been taller than the average human. The discovery provides a unique insight into the evolutionary history of life, and shows that creatures similar to spiders and insects were much larger in the past than previously thought. |
|
|
|
|
|
Life's Lubricant
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
11/22/07 |
| For the first time, scientists have observed the role that water lubricants play in the functioning of proteins. The research sheds light on how proteins perform functions to support life, and may yield clues about the inner workings of early life on our planet. |
|
|
|
|
|
Modular Life
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
11/15/07 |
| New research shows that a changing environment may organize the structure of genetic information. The unique research may shed light on how life's precursor molecules eventually led to the formation of the first organisms on our planet. |
|
|
|
|
|
Building Life on Earth
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
11/02/07 |
| Scientists have suggested a new theory for how the chemical constituents essential to life arose on the early Earth. They've shown that simple molecules can combine to form the building blocks of DNA through chemistry rather than biology. |
|
|
|
|
|
Life's Early Vision
|
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
10/21/07 |
| Scientists have discovered the early origin of genes for vision in animals. |
|
|
|
|
|
