A study reconstructs the chemical composition of key molecules in stars by analyzing their infrared fingerprints.

In living organisms today, complex molecules like RNA and DNA are constructed with the help of enzymes. So how did these molecules form before life (and enzymes) existed? Why did some molecules end up ...

The complex precursors to biological molecules can form spontaneously in interstellar space, according to a lab experiment that opens up new pathways for the origin of life in the universe. In the ...

Scientists have uncovered a previously unknown type of molecular motion inside DNA-based droplets: instead of spreading randomly, guest molecules advance in an organized wave. This surprising ...

Chromatin condensates are made of hundreds of thousands of fast-moving molecules. When they come together, they display emergent properties that do not exist in the molecules individually. These group ...

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The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ten years ago, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe pulled up alongside a dusty, icy lump the size of a mountain. The probe would ...

From crystallographers' beards to billion-dollar lawsuits, the phenomenon of disappearing polymorphs has puzzled chemists for decades. Now researchers are finally unravelling the science behind why st ...

No one saw the blob takeover coming. In 2009 a team of biophysicists led by Anthony A. Hyman of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, were studying ...

Water behaves in remarkable ways when heated and pressurized beyond its critical point. Under these extreme conditions, known as supercritical water, it no longer acts like an ordinary liquid. Instead ...