OoL digest — June 19 edition
This week we have 19 new papers on the origin of life. Enjoy!
Astrobiology
Venus’ Atmospheric Chemistry and Cloud Characteristics Are Compatible with Venusian Life
Bains et al. – Astrobiology
Operation of a programmable microfluidic organic analyzer under microgravity conditions simulating space flight environments
Estlack et al. – npj Microgravity
Detection of phosphates originating from Enceladus’s ocean
Postberg et al. – Nature
Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus’ clouds
Seager et al. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Exploring the Development of Astrobiology Scientific Research through Bibliometric Network Analysis: A Focus on Biomining and Bioleaching
Tonietti et al. – Minerals
Astrophysics
Hydrothermal fluid activity on asteroid Itokawa
Che et al. – Nature Astronomy
Identification of a 4.3 billion year old asteroid family and planetesimal population in the Inner Main Belt
Ferrone et al. – preprint
Biochemistry
Bacteria evolve macroscopic multicellularity by the genetic assimilation of phenotypically plastic cell clustering
Chavhan et al. – Nature Communications
Ribozyme activity modulates the physical properties of RNA–peptide coacervates
Le Vay et al. – eLife
Proteostatic tuning underpins the evolution of novel multicellular traits
Montrose et al. – preprint
Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface
Ozturk et al. – Science Advances
‘Breakthrough’ could explain why life molecules are left- or right-handed
Service – Science News
Aquatic Ferrous Solutions of Prebiotic Mineral Salts as Strong UV Protectants and Possible Loci of Life Origin
Subbotin et al. – Astrobiology
Biophysics
Critical behavior in a chiral molecular model
Piaggi et al. – preprint
Chemistry
Prevalence of multistability and nonstationarity in driven chemical networks
Nicolaou et al. – The Journal of Chemical Physics
Molecular biology
Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes
Eme et al. – Nature
Planetary sciences
Silicon isotope constraints on terrestrial planet accretion
Onyett et al. – Nature
Hadaean to Palaeoarchaean stagnant-lid tectonics revealed by zircon magnetism
Tarduno et al. – Nature
Synthetic biology
Creating complex protocells and prototissues using simple DNA building blocks
Arulkumaran et al. – Nature Communications