These and other discoveries have left scientists wondering if any off-world amino acids might have once helped life evolve ...

The direct enzymatic conversion of an amino acid side chain to a chemical reporter would be an appealing means for site-specific protein labeling. An opportunity to achieve this was recently ...

All forms of Earth life have specific chemicals in their makeup, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists have known that ...

Scientists have long believed they understood how life’s genetic code evolved, but new research upends that assumption. By ...

Scientists have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in the samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission ...

Rock and dust samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu contain organic matter and a variety of minerals crucial to the emergence of life ...

Bennu contains minerals and thousands of organic molecules, including the chemical components that make up DNA.

Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, ...

Two new papers describe hints to a brine-filled environment on the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock and the presence of amino ...

In other words, Bennu's samples provide further evidence that life's building blocks formed early in the solar system and ...