Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims “petroleum-based chemicals” are inherently poisonous, but that’s chemically illiterate: ...

A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesized in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life. A chemical ...

A field study shows how phosphate can concentrate in environments known as 'soda lakes' at the very high levels needed for the basic molecules of life to emerge. A shallow, salty lake in western ...

Cold cosmic dust grains can link amino acids into protein‑like chains in deep space, suggesting life’s chemistry may begin long before planets form, seeding young worlds.

A pair of new studies suggest that key steps toward life’s chemistry may begin long before planets exist. Experiments simulating interstellar space show that simple amino acids can link into peptides, ...

The complex building blocks of life can form spontaneously in space, a new lab experiment shows.

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 ...

Life on Earth relies on molecular building blocks to make DNA and proteins. Scientists have long wondered how prevalent these precursors were at the birth of our solar system. A sample of dust and ...

A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesised in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life, finds a new ...