The Primordial Scoop – Page 5 – Critical thinking about life in the cosmos, how it started, how to find it, and how to re-create it

We Need not a Crusade for the Origins of Life

Did life originate in hydrothermal vents? On dry land undergoing wet-dry cycles under a hazy post-impact atmosphere? Or on dry land bathed in harsh UV? No reason to go to war.

By Guest Author June 6, 2021Origin of LifeNo Comments

Single Scoops

The Shadow Biosphere

Three papers published today in Science point to the possibility of a "shadow biosphere": a domain of life invisible to conventional scientific detection methods because its DNA contains different building blocks.

By Steven A. Benner April 29, 2021Single Scoops4 Comments

Single Scoops

If we are related to Martians, how would we know (Part 2)?

How we would know if we were related to Martians if our last our common ancestor had not yet evolved the ability to synthesize proteins

By Steven A. Benner April 19, 2021Single ScoopsNo Comments

Single Scoops

April Link Roundup

Interesting links with lite commentary

By Daniel Benner April 14, 2021Single ScoopsNo Comments

Life on Mars Origin of Life Single Scoops

If we are related to Martians, how would we know (Part 1)?

If life ever existed on Mars, it's possible that it could be related, in some way, to life on Earth. Fortunately, such a relationship would leave signs in Martian biochemistry.

By Steven A. Benner March 29, 2021Life on Mars, Origin of Life, Single Scoops1 Comment

Astrobiology Origin of Life

An Earth-Sized Planet 41 Light Years Away with Hydrogen Cyanide. So What?

Hydrogen cyanide has rare chemical properties that make it an important ingredient for the abiotic creation of nucleic acids, the building blocks of DNA

By Steven A. Benner March 28, 2021Astrobiology, Origin of LifeNo Comments

Link Roundup

March Link Roundup

Interesting links with lite commentary

By Daniel Benner March 19, 2021Link RoundupNo Comments

Single Scoops

Mars Is a Hellhole. That is Why I Want to Live There.

Some people say that we should not colonize Mars, because it would be hard. I say, we should colonize Mars, because it would be hard. Challenge is what drives invention and we should not shy away from it.

By Jan Spacek March 17, 2021Single ScoopsNo Comments

Origin of Life

If Earth was a Water World, then we are Martians

Explaining the origin of life is a historical question, which makes it difficult to resolve with traditional hypothesis testing. However, there are other ways to think about the problem.

By Steven A. Benner March 13, 2021Origin of Life2 Comments

Single Scoops

Growing Life on Martian Rocks

A team of researchers grew microbes on the surface of a Martian meteorite to show what fingerprints life might leave behind.

By Steven A. Benner February 24, 2021Single ScoopsNo Comments

Paleogenetics

Resurrecting the Past: From Molecules to Ecosystems

We might not be able to clone whole dinosaurs, but through clever inferences, we can re-construct genomes of ancient organisms to learn about their biology and the environments that drove their evolution.

By Steven A. Benner February 17, 2021PaleogeneticsNo Comments

Life on Mars

How the Agnostic Life Finder (ALF) Searches for Life on Mars

Here, we describe an Agnostic Life Finder (ALF) that is able to look for life in water throughout the Solar System. ALF uses electric fields to extract alien genetic molecules from water. This water will be mined in large volumes during in situ resource utilization (ISRU), to generate fuel before the first humans arrive to create large scale environmental perturbation.

By Jan Spacek February 11, 2021Life on MarsNo Comments