Nearly all living organisms use the same genetic code, a complicated mechanism by which genetic information is translated into proteins, the building blocks of life. A new study suggests ...

Chemists at UCL (University College London) have shown how two of biology’s most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and amino acids, could have spontaneously joined together at the origin ...

Chemists at University College London have shown how two of biology's most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) ...

Chimpanzees, along with bonobos, are humans' closest living relatives. In fact, you may have heard that humans and chimps share 98.8% of their DNA. But is this actually true? And what does "similar ...

The mystery, which has evaded scientists for more than five decades, can be explained with rather simple chemistry, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature. In lab experiments, scientists ...

Earlier efforts to attach amino acids to RNA had relied on highly reactive compounds that quickly degraded in water and ...

Researchers stumbled upon an ingredient that can stabilize droplets of genetic material: water. By Carl Zimmer Rain may have been an essential ingredient for the origin of life, according to a ...

Ancient DNA Offers Crucial Hints to the Origin of Syphilis, a Decades-Long Mystery That Has Divided Scientists Researchers found evidence that early versions of syphilis-causing bacteria existed ...

Her book, Origin: A Genetic History Of The Americas (Twelve Books, 2022: Amazon US / Amazon UK) details what we do know and how we know it, what we don’t know, and why it’s so complicated to ...