The presence of amino acids on the prebiotic Earth is widely accepted, either coming from endogenous chemical processes or being delivered by extraterrestrial material. On the other hand, plausibly ...

The genetic information stored in DNA is “decoded” to form proteins via the process of translation. This involves the formation of peptide bonds between amino acids bound to transfer RNA (tRNA) ...

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

A team of researchers has just demonstrated that essential molecular chains, peptides, can form spontaneously on cosmic dust grains, meaning in space. This result changes our understanding of ...

The chemical foundations of life could be found in the frigid pockets of molecular clouds that exist in the space between stars, rather than on any planetary bodies. At the University of Aarhus in ...

The discovery of ribosomes dates back to the 1950s, when George Palade first observed dense particles in the cytoplasm of cells using electron microscopy. These particles were later named "ribosomes" ...

Illustration of intracluster bond formation, cluster containing two biomolecules, being exposed to UV light (left), causes a chemical bond forming between the two molecules (center), resulting in a ...

The molecular machines that cells use to build proteins are backed by a billion years of evolution. In that time, these machines—ribosomes—have become exceptionally good at forging amide bonds between ...

The process of 'translation' in protein synthesis involves formation of a peptide bond between two amino acids that are attached to two distinct transfer RNAs (tRNAs). For long, scientists have been ...