A new NASA analysis concludes that it is "reasonable to hypothesize" that living things could have formed the odd organic ...

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In living organisms today, complex molecules like RNA and DNA are constructed with the help of enzymes. So how did these molecules form before life (and enzymes) existed? Why did some molecules end up ...

Looking for molecular evidence of life on other worlds is tricky, but a test based on the reactivity of carbon compounds ...

WASHINGTON – Stick a shovel in the ground and scoop. That’s about how deep scientists need to go in order to find evidence for ancient life on Mars, if there is any to be found, a new study suggests.

A team of scientists just discovered the longest organic molecules yet seen on Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun and and a tantalizing venue for humankind’s search for life beyond Earth. Mars today ...

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, ...

What made ribose the sugar of choice for life's code? Scientists at Scripps Research may have cracked a major part of this mystery. Their experiments show that ribose binds more readily and ...

A complex form of carbon crucial for life on Earth has been spotted outside the solar system for the first time. Its presence helps show how the compounds needed for life could come from space. The ...

Consider your hands. They are essentially identical in every respect bar one: They are mirror images of each other. Many of the molecules of life, such as proteins and DNA, have the same property.

Washington, D.C. — Over the last half century, researchers have found that mineral surfaces may have played critical roles organizing, or activating, molecules that would become essential ingredients ...