OoL digest — May 5
This week we have 16 new papers on the origin of life. Enjoy!
Astrobiology
Life on the Edge: Using Planetary Context to Enhance Biosignatures and Avoid False Positives
Arthur et al. — preprint
Fluorescent Biomolecules Detectable in Near-Surface Ice on Europa
Yoffe et al. — Astrobiology
TEMI: tissue-expansion mass-spectrometry imaging
Zhang et al. — Nature Methods
Astrophysics
The Challenges of Detecting Gases in Exoplanet Atmospheres
Welbanks et al. — preprint
Biochemistry
Assembly of catalytic complexes from randomized oligonucleotides
Han et al. — Science Advances
A deeper dive into primitive polylactate polymerization and microdroplet assembly under restrictive early Earth conditions
Sithamparam et al. — Polymer Journal
Abiotic aldol reactions of formaldehyde with ketoses and aldoses—Implications for the prebiotic synthesis of sugars by the formose reaction
Sutton et al. — Chem
On the role of α-alumina in the origin of life: Surface-driven assembly of amino acids
Wang et al. — Science Advances
Biophysics
Coacervates meet the RNP-world: liquid-liquid phase separation and the emergence of biological compartmentalization
Prosdocimi et al. — BioSystems
A Thermodynamic Model for the Emergence of Natural Selection in Prebiotic Reaction Networks
Prosser — preprint
Protocell Dynamics: Modelling Growth and Division of Lipid Vesicles Driven by an Autocatalytic Reaction
Taneja et al. — Life
Chemistry
Simulated early Earth geochemistry fuels a hydrogen-dependent primordial metabolism
Helmbrecht et al. — Nature Ecology & Evolution
Thermodynamic constraints on the citric acid cycle and related reactions in ocean world interiors
Işık et al. — preprint
Geoscience
A one-billion-year-old Scottish meteorite impact
Kirkland et al. — Geology
Microbiology
Viral activity in lake analogs of anoxic early Earth oceans
Varona et al. — Microbiome
Planetary sciences
Hydrothermal activity generated by impact melt emplacement on the rim of Ritchey crater, Mars
Zeng et al. — Nature Communications