New research shows that rainwater could have helped create a meshy wall around protocells 3.8 billion years ago, a critical step in the transition from tiny beads of RNA to every bacterium, plant, ...

Modern cells are complex chemical entities with cytoskeletons, finely regulated internal and external molecules, and genetic material that determines nearly every aspect of their functioning. This ...

Protocell compartments used as models for an important step in the early evolution of life on Earth can be made from short polymers. The short polymers, which better approximate the likely size of ...

The scientific study of life’s origins is undergoing a major transition, from a decades-long focus on deep-sea hydrothermal vents toward increasing investigation of hot springs and other chemically ...

The Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders reveal the leading institutions and countries/territories in the natural sciences, health sciences, applied sciences and social sciences, according to their ...

One of the major unanswered questions about the origin of life is how droplets of RNA floating around the primordial soup turned into the membrane-protected packets of life we call cells. A new paper ...

A new paper from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Houston Chemical Engineering Department and Chicago Center for the Origins of Life suggests rainwater could have ...