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a yellow-ish fish skull is held up by metal prongs, with a rack of other museum collection items in the background
Fossilized Fish Teeth Could Be Earliest Evidence of Cooking
Study authors say the teeth, dated around 780,000 years old, push back the date humans are known to have engaged in cooking by more than 600,000 years. 
Fossilized Fish Teeth Could Be Earliest Evidence of Cooking
Fossilized Fish Teeth Could Be Earliest Evidence of Cooking

Study authors say the teeth, dated around 780,000 years old, push back the date humans are known to have engaged in cooking by more than 600,000 years. 

Study authors say the teeth, dated around 780,000 years old, push back the date humans are known to have engaged in cooking by more than 600,000 years. 

evolution, biochemistry

Tree with many scattered branches.
Scientists Resurrect Ancient Rubiscos to Understand Their Evolution
Alejandra Manjarrez, PhD | Oct 14, 2022 | 5 min read
A team proposes that the addition of a small accessory subunit to the carbon-fixing enzyme was key to improving its catalytic properties and specificity to CO2.
red ants coming out of dirt hole
Bull Ant Venom Evolved to Make Bites More Painful to Mammals
Dan Robitzski | Jul 5, 2022 | 2 min read
A peptide found in bull ant venom closely resembles a hormone of its primary predator, triggering hypersensitivity and making subsequent bites even more painful than the ones that came before.
portrait of Marilyn Fogel in front of bookcase
Marilyn Fogel, Biogeochemist and “Isotope Queen,” Dies at 69
Andy Carstens | May 25, 2022 | 3 min read
Fogel mined information from isotopes to explore modern and ancient ecosystems, climatic changes, and evolution.
Illustration of pink strands of RNA on a blue background
Synthetic RNA Can Build Peptides, Hinting at Life’s Beginnings
Jef Akst | May 12, 2022 | 2 min read
Researchers engineered strands of RNA that can link amino acids together, suggesting a way that RNA and proteins may have emerged together to create the earliest forms of life.
Illustration of a meteorite shower heading for Earth
All RNA and DNA Base Types Are Found in Meteorites, Study Claims
Catherine Offord | Apr 27, 2022 | 2 min read
The discovery could add weight to the hypothesis that the building blocks of life on Earth originally came from space, but some scientists note the possibility of contamination.
A hydrothermal vent spewing hot, mineral-rich fluid
Hydrogen Fueled Life’s Origins: Study
Sophie Fessl, PhD | Dec 15, 2021 | 4 min read
A thermodynamic analysis of more than 400 chemical reactions that likely took place in the ancestor of all life finds most would spontaneously occur at hydrothermal vents, thanks to the hydrogen these geological formations emit.
Book Excerpt from Every Life is On Fire
Jeremy England | Nov 1, 2020 | 7 min read
In Chapter 7, “Wind and Breath,” author Jeremy England considers research findings that point to a surprising, emergent property of seemingly disordered molecules.
Reconsidering Life’s Origin
Jeremy England | Nov 1, 2020 | 3 min read
Is the model of early life as a freak occurrence in a disordered, primordial soup of chemicals wrong?
DNA’s Coding Power Doubled
Ruth Williams | Feb 21, 2019 | 3 min read
All life on Earth uses a genetic code based on four nucleotides. Now, scientists have created one with eight.
Researchers Discover Salt-Loving Methanogens
Abby Olena, PhD | May 26, 2017 | 3 min read
Two previously overlooked archaeal strains fill an evolutionary gap for microbes.
Yoav Gilad: Gene Regulator
Chris Palmer | Oct 1, 2013 | 3 min read
Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago. Age: 38
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