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 ...

Molecular clusters are aggregates of molecules that are held together non-covalently, by relatively weak forces. When these clusters are excited, normally one would expect the cluster to simply break ...

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 ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 114, No. 1 (January 3, 2017), pp. 95-100 (6 pages) Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are a family of ...

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 ...

Long before dinosaurs munched on leafy greens or photosynthesizing algae soaked up the sun, a lifeless soup of simple molecules floated through the watery and rocky landscape of early planet Earth.