Amino Acids

If you've never heard of fox nuts, you'd be forgiven for assuming that they don't seem particularly palatable. But they're actually starchy seeds harvested from an aquatic lily that boast vast health benefits. And no foxes are harmed in the process.

Venus may be a hellscape, but there’s a chance some forms of life could evolve there. A new MIT study has now found that the building blocks of life are surprisingly stable in highly concentrated sulfuric acid – which Venus’ clouds are made of.

Research found that reducing the intake of a single amino acid by two-thirds improved the lifespan, weight, and health of middle-aged mice without requiring a drop in calorie intake. Limiting isoleucine intake may be a key to healthy aging.

Aging is an inevitable part of living that many try to roll back. A new study found that a naturally occurring amino acid slowed the aging process in mice, monkeys and worms. And they think it may play a role in human aging, too.

Science often involves sifting through enormous amounts of data, a task that’s overwhelming for humans but a piece of cake for AI. A new platform dubbed BacterAI can conduct 10,000 experiments per day to teach itself – and us – more about bacteria.

By removing certain amino acids from the diets fed to rodents suffering from glioblastoma, researchers found that brain cancer cells began dying. What's more, mice put on the restrictive diets were also more receptive to chemotherapy treatment.

A new study suggests natural selection was at work before life itself existed on Earth. By recreating the primordial soup, scientists identified how a cocktail of specific amino acids informed the genetic code of every single lifeform on the planet.

Exactly how non-living molecules sparked life is one of the most puzzling mysteries of science. Scientists have now discovered chemical reactions that can produce the building blocks of life out of materials common in early Earth's primordial soup.

How life first emerged from non-living matter is one of the most enduring mysteries of science. In a new study, scientists have created self-replicating protocells in the lab, which could represent the “missing link” between chemistry and biology.

Scientists have discovered a full, previously-unknown protein inside a meteorite for the first time. Named hemolithin, the new protein contains iron and lithium and may play an important role in seeding life on habitable planets like Earth.

Exactly how life sprung out of non-living matter is one of biology’s biggest mysteries. In new research, scientists cooked up a “primordial soup” and found that some of the crucial building blocks of life spontaneously stacked themselves in a surprisingly efficient way.

A new study from UCL may have brought us a step closer to understanding how life arose. The team may have solved a long-standing chicken-and-egg riddle related to how different types of peptides and proteins interact to give rise to life.