PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth

Experiments show that complex molecules can form in icy grains in space

2013-03-05
(Press-News.org) It's among the most ancient of questions: What are the origins of life on Earth?

A new experiment simulating conditions in deep space reveals that the complex building blocks of life could have been created on icy interplanetary dust and then carried to Earth, jump-starting life.

Chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, showed that conditions in space are capable of creating complex dipeptides – linked pairs of amino acids – that are essential building blocks shared by all living things. The discovery opens the door to the possibility that these molecules were brought to Earth aboard a comet or possibly meteorites, catalyzing the formation of proteins (polypeptides), enzymes and even more complex molecules, such as sugars, that are necessary for life.

"It is fascinating to consider that the most basic biochemical building blocks that led to life on Earth may well have had an extraterrestrial origin," said UC Berkeley chemist Richard Mathies, coauthor of a paper published online last week and scheduled for the March 10 print issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

While scientists have discovered basic organic molecules, such as amino acids, in numerous meteorites that have fallen to Earth, they have been unable to find the more complex molecular structures that are prerequisites for our planet's biology. As a result, scientists have always assumed that the really complicated chemistry of life must have originated in Earth's early oceans.

In an ultra-high vacuum chamber chilled to 10 degrees above absolute zero (10 Kelvin), Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser of the Hawaiian team simulated an icy snowball in space including carbon dioxide, ammonia and various hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane and propane. When zapped with high-energy electrons to simulate the cosmic rays in space, the chemicals reacted to form complex, organic compounds, specifically dipeptides, essential to life.

At UC Berkeley, Mathies and Amanda Stockton then analyzed the organic residues through the Mars Organic Analyzer, an instrument that Mathies designed for ultrasensitive detection and identification of small organic molecules in the solar system. The analysis revealed the presence of complex molecules – nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides – capable of catalyzing biological evolution on earth.

### The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mathies Royalty Fund at UC Berkeley.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Affordable care alone may not be enough to help Latinos overcome cancer care barriers

2013-03-05
A combination of financial, cultural and communication barriers plays a role in preventing underserved Latino men with prostate cancer from accessing the care and treatment they need, according to a new study by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing. The study, "Barriers to Prostate Cancer Care: Affordable Care Is Not Enough," is published in the March issue of the peer-reviewed journal Qualitative Health Research. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Latino men. Additionally, Latino men are ...

International consortium discovers 7 new genomic regions associated with AMD

2013-03-05
(Boston) – An international group of researchers has discovered seven new regions of the human genome—called loci—that are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. The AMD Gene Consortium, a network of international investigators representing 18 research groups, also confirmed 12 loci identified in previous studies. The study, which is published online in Nature Genetics and represents the most comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic variations associated with AMD, was supported by the National Eye Institute ...

Alligator relatives slipped across ancient seaways

Alligator relatives slipped across ancient seaways
2013-03-05
The uplift of the Isthmus of Panama 2.6 million years ago formed a land-bridge that has long thought to be the crucial step in the interchange of animals between the Americas, including armadillos and giant sloths moving up into North America and relatives of modern horses, rabbits, foxes, pigs, cats, dogs, and elephants down into South America. However, in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers from the University of Florida and the Smithsonian Tropical Research institute describe fossil crocodilians that shed a surprising new light ...

Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for March 5, 2013

2013-03-05
A special supplement on patient safety strategies will be published with the March 5 issue. In addition to the 10 articles included in the supplement, Annals of Internal Medicine also will publish a special five-page graphic narrative on the topic of medical errors. Please see summaries at the bottom of the page for information. Full text of the graphic novel and articles in the supplement are available upon request. 1. Screening with Colonoscopy May Reduce Risk for Late-stage Cancer By 70 Percent Screening with sigmoidoscopy yields similar results in cancer of ...

Study identifies ways to increase HIV testing, reduce HIV infection

2013-03-05
Study results presented today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) show that a series of community efforts can increase the number of people who get tested and know their HIV status, especially among men and young people with HIV who might otherwise transmit the virus to others. The study was also able to demonstrate a modest 14% reduction in new HIV infections in the intervention communities compared to the control communities. NIMH Project Accept (HPTN 043) ...

Medicare patients who use hospice receive better care at a lower cost to the government

2013-03-05
Medicare patients who enrolled in hospice received better care at a significantly lower cost to the government than those who did not use the Medicare hospice benefit. The data indicate that annual savings to Medicare could amount to $2.4 million to $6.4 million, if 1,000 additional Medicare beneficiaries chose to enroll in hospice 53-105 days before death, or 15-30 days prior to death. The study, led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is published in the March issue of Health Affairs. It is part of Health Affairs' Care Span series, funded ...

Global warming will open unexpected new shipping routes in Arctic, UCLA researchers find

Global warming will open unexpected new shipping routes in Arctic, UCLA researchers find
2013-03-05
Shipping lanes through the Arctic Ocean won't put the Suez and Panama canals out of business anytime soon, but global warming will make these frigid routes much more accessible than ever imagined by melting an unprecedented amount of sea ice during the late summer, new UCLA research shows. "The development is both exciting from an economic development point of view and worrisome in terms of safety, both for the Arctic environment and for the ships themselves," said lead researcher Laurence C. Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA. The findings, which explore accessibility ...

Discovery opens door to new drug options for serious diseases

2013-03-05
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers have discovered how oxidative stress can turn to the dark side a cellular protein that's usually benign, and make it become a powerful, unwanted accomplice in neuronal death. This finding, reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could ultimately lead to new therapeutic approaches to many of the world's debilitating or fatal diseases. The research explains how one form of oxidative stress called tyrosine nitration can lead to cell death. Through the common link of inflammation, this may relate to health problems ...

Survey finds public support for legal interventions to fight obesity, noncommunicable diseases

2013-03-05
Boston, MA — The public is very supportive of government action aimed at changing lifestyle choices that can lead to obesity, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases—but they're less likely to support such interventions if they're viewed as intrusive or coercive, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. The study also found that support was higher for interventions that help people make more healthful choices, such as menu labeling requirements, than for interventions that penalize certain choices or health conditions, such as charging higher ...

One law to rule them all -- sizes within a species appear to follow a universal distribution

2013-03-05
Flocks of birds, schools of fish, and groups of any other living organisms might have a mathematical function in common. Studying aquatic microorganisms, Andrea Giometto, a researcher EPFL and Eawag, showed that for each species he studied, body sizes were distributed according to the same mathematical expression, where the only unknown is the average size of the species in an ecosystem. His article was published in in PNAS in March 2013. Several observations suggest that the size distribution function could be universal. Giometto made his observations in the lab on ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study: suppressing key protein may unlock immunotherapy for Glioblastoma

Early surgical intervention in children with sleep-disordered breathing reduces need for doctor visits, prescriptions

Statin use and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver fibrosis in chronic liver disease

Gender-affirming hormone therapy and depressive symptoms among transgender adults

Surgery in kids with mild sleep-disordered breathing tied to fewer doctor visits, meds

Magnetic microalgae on a mission to become robots

Impact journals to participate at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025

Webb telescope captures its first direct images of carbon dioxide outside solar system

NIH-sponsored trial of Lassa vaccine opens

Pro-life people partly motivated to prevent casual sex, study finds

Top locations for ocean energy production worldwide revealed

New AI model analyzes full night of sleep with high accuracy in largest study of its kind

Combination of cosmic processes shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes

New study shows regular exercise pre-hospitalization is linked to better outcomes in heart failure

New discovery in plant–pest warfare could lead to sustainable farming solutions

Make Indian sign language an official language and open more schools for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, Cambridge study advises Indian government

Deep dive into space turns up new Spitzer bubbles

Attention can be used to drive cooperation – new study

A post-treatment blood test could inform future cancer therapy decisions

Bridging Nature and Nurture: Study reveals brain's flexible foundation from birth

Newborns with heart defects may face a higher risk of developing childhood cancer

Continued medication important for heart failure patients

Tools to succeed: Learning support for new nurses

A breakthrough in green hydrogen peroxide production: KIST develops carbon catalyst utilizing airborne oxygen

Travellers: beware of Oropouche virus. Is it the next Zika?

No increased death rates, admission differences for people experiencing homelessness with severe COVID-19

Optimizing public placement of naloxone kits to save lives

Burden of cardiovascular disease caused by extreme heat in Australia to more than double by 2050

Who does Darth Vader vote for? Not the same party as Harry Potter

Ground breaking advances in construction robotics in extreme environments unveiled in review

[Press-News.org] New evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth
Experiments show that complex molecules can form in icy grains in space