DNA
Even Tiny Amounts of DNA on Mars Will Be Detectable
The Search for Life is focused on the search for biosignatures. Planetary life leaves a chemical fingerprint on a planet's…
Life Could be Common Across the Universe, Just Not in Our Region
The building blocks of life can, and did, spontaneously assemble under the right conditions. That's called spontaneous generation, or abiogenesis.…
Nutrient-Poor and Energy-Starved. How Life Might Survive at the Extremes in the Solar System
Our growing understanding of extremophiles here on Earth has opened up new possibilities in astrobiology. Scientists are taking another look…
Microsoft and Partners Hope to Create a Time Capsule… On the Moon!
Microsoft has teamed up with researchers to create a time capsule using synthetic DNA, which will be sent to the…
What’s that Strange Glowing Mold? Astronauts will Soon be Able to Sequence Unknown Space Organisms
Building on the success of their Biomolecule Sequencer, NASA is launching the Genes in Space-3 project to give astronauts the…
DNA Won’t Be Killed Dead By A Rocket Ride To Space, Study Suggests
So how 'bout those planetary protection agreements? Turns out that plasmid DNA -- the kind that exists in bacterial cells …
Catastrophic Impacts Made Life on Earth Possible
How did life on Earth originally develop from random organic compounds into living, evolving cells? It may have relied on…
Mars Sample Return Mission? Naaah… Just Beam Back Martian DNA
Artist concept of a Mars Sample Return mission. Credit: Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion. A Mars sample return mission has long…
Kickstart Your DNA (And a Rover) To The Moon!
Omega Envoy, the non-profit research lab Earthrise Space, Inc.'s team competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, has launched a…