Aug. 28, 2020
Research Highlight
Chemical Evolution and the Origins of Life
The topic of chemical evolution and the origins of life is a primary focus of astrobiology, and is an essential part of understanding life’s origins on Earth and the potential for life beyond our planet. These studies cross disciplines, from prebiotic chemistry to astrophysics, and are relevant to fields that cover the breadth of research funded by the NASA Astrobiology Program.
The journal Chemical Reviews has published a thematic issue dedicated to ‘Chemical Evolution and the Origins of Life,’ which provides a resource concerning the current state-of-the-art in origins research. The issue includes numerous contributions from researchers supported by the NASA Astrobiology Program, with Nicholas Hud (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy (Scripps Research Institute) serving as editors.
Nicholas Hud, Director of the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.Image credit: GA Tech.
The special edition discusses research regarding the inventory of elements and molecules on young planets that can self-assemble into systems that evolve into what could be considered life. The issue covers current understanding in a variety of topics, as well as unsolved problems and challenges as researchers address the question, “Can the origins of life be demonstrated or understood experimentally?”
Nicholas Hud is the Director of the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The CCE is a collaborative program supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program. Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy is a collaborator with the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE), and a co-lead of the NASA Astrobiology Program’s Research Coordination Network (RCN), Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3).
Professor Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy speaks at a Story Collider event at the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering. Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy is a collaborator with the CCE and a co-lead of the NASA Astrobiology Program RCN, Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments.Image credit: Photos courtesy of Chris Parsons (Center for Chemical Evolution, Georgia Tech).
Articles within the special edition that received support from NASA Astrobiology include:
Introduction: Chemical Evolution and the Origins of Life
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, PCE3
Chemistry of Abiotic Nucleotide Synthesis
NASA Exobiology Program, NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution
Prebiotic Astrochemistry and the Formation of Molecules of Astrobiological Interest in Interstellar Clouds and Protostellar Disks
NASA Emerging Worlds Program, NASA Astrobiology Institute
Prebiotic Peptides: Molecular Hubs in the Origin of Life
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, NASA Postdoctoral Program
Prebiotic Syntheses of Noncanonical Nucleosides and Nucleotides
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution
Promiscuous Ribozymes and Their Proposed Role in Prebiotic Evolution
NASA Exobiology Program
Root of the Tree: The Significance, Evolution, and Origins of the Ribosome
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, NASA Postdoctoral Program
The Search for Chiral Asymmetry as a Potential Biosignature in our Solar System
NASA Astrobiology Institute
Thermodynamics of Prebiotic Phosphorylation
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution