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The beginning of life

The development of life. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Podcast: The Great Mysteries of Science Episode 1 - The Origin of Life

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Arthropod (Naroia). Credit: Dr. Xiaoya Ma

Modern animals may have originated in a shallow, nutrient-rich Delta

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The ancestors of many species of animals alive today may have lived in the delta of present-day China, new research suggests
Earth as a snowball. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Changes in the Earth's rotation axis may have encouraged the development of life

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Scientists from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom have discovered that it is possible that changes in the Earth's rotation axis encouraged the development and prosperity of complex life despite the most extreme climate that has ever existed on Earth.
On the way to the ancestors of the cells: in the presence of RNA, the primitive peptide leads to the separation of an event (like the separation of oil droplets in water), which enables self-assembly and the creation of a configuration of a kind of primitive "compartment"

The building block of the first proteins was discovered

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We imagine the aliens as distorted human-like creatures. Not a chance. Illustration: shutterstock

Do invisible aliens exist among us? An astrobiologist explains

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A view of a cluster of young stars (million years old), known as the North American Nebula or the Plesian Nebula (top right). This is a clean and processed version of the original Spitzer Space Telescope image. NASA/JPL-Caltech. Illustration: shutterstock

Did the building blocks of life form in interstellar clouds?

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A diagram showing the development of life throughout the geological periods. Source: United States Geological Survey / Wikimedia.

How were the first cells formed? with protein

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a molecule. Illustration: shutterstock

Scientists have identified a protein that may have existed at the beginning of life

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Hot springs within the ocean, 4.2 billion year old bacteria were discovered in these environments. From Wikipedia

The first historical model for the formation of life received a significant boost

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This image shows the spectacular region of star formation where methyl isocyanate is found. Inside the circle - an illustration showing the molecular structure of this chemical. Image: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/L. Calçada

One of the basic building blocks of life was discovered in solar systems in the stages of their formation

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One of the 60 micrometeorites found in a 2.7 billion year old limestone from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. These micrometeorites are composed of iron oxides formed when meteoric iron dust particles oxidized as they traversed Earth's atmosphere, revealing that the upper atmosphere was surprisingly rich in oxygen.Credit: Andrew Tomkins

Cosmic dust has revealed Earth's ancient atmosphere

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Hydrothermal smokers at a temperature of 100 degrees in the Champagne vent area. From Wikipedia

Organism of the month: about giant worms and life in the depths of the ocean

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The pie chart depicts the tree of all life forms over the entire history of the 3.5 billion years since life first arose, and how it evolved and diversified. Figure: Credit: opentreeoflife.org

The tree of life containing the connections between the 2.3 million species known to science - from bacteria to humans - has been mapped

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A planet with a thick atmosphere. Image: NASA

Did pre-living molecules form in the atmospheres of distant planets?

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Cross section showing how continents slide under each other. Image: NASA

Is life also responsible for the creation of the continents on Earth?

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Ancient soils in South Africa containing layers billions of years old. Courtesy of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of British Columbia.

Oxygen appeared in the atmosphere up to 700 million years earlier than we previously thought

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Chemical analysis of the meteorite fragment that crashed into Shatter Mill may indicate that rocks in space contained the molecules required for the development of life. Photo: Prof. Sandra Fitzgerald, Arizona State University

Life started out easy, because the organic compounds that came from space were more complex than we thought until now

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Synthesis of hydrocarbon starting materials as a result of the impact of simple glacial mixtures on the ancient Earth. Image: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories at UC Berkeley

Is the origin of life on Earth extraterrestrial?

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Skill-like microstructures inside a 3.4-billion-year-old Halamish stone found in Western Australia. Photo: Christopher House, Penn State University

Early life: Plankton fossils have been discovered in three billion year old rocks

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A hypothetical young planet orbiting a sun that has already cooled and is being constantly bombarded with materials from space - NASA illustration

Phosphorus, one of the essential elements for life, arrived on Earth through meteorites

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2.7 billion year old metal ore discovered in Canada. Makes it possible to estimate the composition of the atmosphere at that time. Photo: McGill University

New clues about the origin of life on Earth

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TNA molecule. A candidate as an alternative to RNA in pre-cellular life

Strange cousins: Molecular alternatives to DNA and RNA provide new insight into the origin of life

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3.4 billion year old microscopic fossils discovered in Western Australia. Photo: University of Western Australia and University of Oxford

The oldest fossil was discovered - bacteria 3.4 billion years old

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After the division of the simple model cell, one of the daughter cells inherits only one type of lipid (red) and most of the protein fragments (blue), while the other daughter cell inherits two types of lipids (red and green). Image: See link to the source of the image at the end of the article

New insights into the mechanism of cell division

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Miller-Ury experiment diagram from Wikipedia

The ancient soup is ready to serve

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