A new molecule that performs the essential function of life – self-replication – could shed light on the origin of all living things. If that wasn’t enough, the laboratory-born ribonucleic acid (RNA) strand evolves in a test tube to double itself ever more swiftly. “Obviously what we’re trying to do is make a biology,” says Gerald Joyce, a…

The details of the origin of life are unknown, but the basic principles have been established. There are basically two schools of thought which are further divided into many about the origin of life. One suggests that organic components arrived on Earth from space, while the other argues that they originated on Earth.

Harvard’s Andy Knoll is content studying a puzzle that may never be solved: Exactly how did life on Earth begin? Enlarge Photo credit: Courtesy of Andy Knoll. What are the origins of life? How did things go from non-living to living? From something that could not reproduce to something that could? One person who has exhaustively investigated…

1.0 The Beginning The planet Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. During the initial 0.7 billion years following its formation, the early Earth was heavily bombarded by solar system materials, such as comets and asteroid-sized objects. The energy released by the largest impacts was sufficient to evaporate the oceans and destroy any existing life…

The brain is our main sexual organ. It controls everything: from sex drive and pleasure to sexual orientation. Now a team at the University of Utah has even managed to induce homosexuality! Not in humans, but in nematode worms. “They look like girls, but act and think like boys. The [same-sex attraction] behavior is part…

Life must have begun with a simple molecule that could reproduce itself – and now we think we know how to make one 4 BILLION years before present: the surface of a newly formed planet around a medium-sized star is beginning to cool down. It’s a violent place, bombarded by meteorites and riven by volcanic…

Hominid or hominin? Some scientists use a broader definition of Hominidae which includes the great apes, and instead call the group I am discussing “hominins”. For a good discussion of the hominid/hominin terminology issue, read this article by Lee Berger. Sahelanthropus tchadensis Orrorin tugenensis Ardipithecus ramidus Australopithecus anamensis Australopithecus afarensis Kenyanthropus platyops Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus garhi Australopithecus…

1. What is evolution? Biological evolution refers to the cumulative changes that occur in a population over time. These changes are produced at the genetic level as organisms’ genes mutate and/or recombine in different ways during reproduction and are passed on to future generations. Sometimes, individuals inherit new characteristics that give them a survival and…