Bampot

Scientists believe that, in the earliest life forms, genetic material would have been carried and replicated by strands of RNA, before DNA and proteins later emerged and took over.

Yet getting strands of RNA to replicate in the lab in a simple way—i.e., that plausibly could have occurred at the outset of life—has proved challenging. RNA strands zip up into a double helix that blocks their replication. Like Velcro, these are hard to pull apart and quick to stick back together, leaving no time to copy them.

In a study described in Nature Chemistry, researchers overcame this problem by using three-letter "triplet" RNA building blocks in water and adding acid and heat, which separated the double helix. They then neutralized and froze the solution.

Paper:

Trinucleotide substrates under pH–freeze–thaw cycles enable open-ended exponential RNA replication by a polymerase ribozyme

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-025-01830-y

"We already have the tools to find out where it might impact. But what we don't know is, is it a rock, is it a loose pile of gravel or is it a solid block of iron?

"Without that information, we don't know whether to launch a missile to change its trajectory or whether to let it be. We don't know whether it's going to cause mass destruction or a nice little meteor shower."

Until recently, many scientists believed only humans could build layered vocal structures. This belief helped reinforce the idea of a divide between us and other animals.

But our discovery adds to a growing body of research showing this divide may not be so clear-cut. Studies on great apes and other animals such as lemurs, whales and dolphins have revealed they are capable of rhythmic structuring, vocal learning, combining signals and sounds to make new ones, and even using vowels and consonants. These findings suggest the roots of language may lie in shared evolutionary mechanisms.

Human language is unique in many ways. But it probably did not appear suddenly. Even the most striking traits in life evolve by reshaping what already exists, through the slow work of variation and natural selection. Our work suggests the brain systems needed to build recursive patterns were present in our ancestors millions of years ago.

Much of the data we see touted as evidence for extraterrestrial life comes from light years away, via one instrument, and without any in situ samples.

The search for extraterrestrial life is not held to a higher standard of scientific rigour but it is constrained by an inability to independently detect and attribute multiple lines of evidence.

For now, the claims about K2-18 b remain compelling but inconclusive.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t making progress. Each new observation adds to a growing body of knowledge about the universe and our place in it. The search continues – not because we’re too cautious, but because we are rightly so.

The pebble from San Lázaro rock-shelter presents a series of characteristics that render it exceptional, based on which we have deemed it a visual symbol that could be considered a piece of portable art in some contexts. We use the term ‘portable art’ here in the broad archaeological sense, referring to deliberately modified or marked objects with possible symbolic significance, rather than implying figurative representation or aesthetic intention.

Finally, the fact that the pebble was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ocher shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object. Furthermore, in this case, we can propose that three fundamental cognitive processes are involved in creating art: the mental conception of an image, deliberate communication, and the attribution of meaning. These are the basic elements characterizing symbolism and, also prehistoric -nonfigurative- art. Furthermore, this pebble could thus represent one of the oldest known abstractions of a human face in the prehistoric record, according to the hypothesis of Face Pareidolia.

In the Maya belief system, specifically, the soul could be divided into four separate parts. "Baah," which means the self represented by the head, and represents one's life force. "Ik'" represented the breath of the soul and was associated with wind, jade, and teeth. "Ch'ulel" was the essence which resided in the heart and blood, and finally, "wahy" were companion spirits, typically animals, who would die after their human counterpart passed on.

Since an ancestor's soul did not necessitate their entire body to be present, parts of it could be used to communicate with their descendants, such as the skull, mandible, teeth, or arm.

However, typically when such remains are found secondary to a primary burial, they were interpreted as evidence of ritual violence, offerings, and sacrifices either for the primary deceased, gods, or buildings.

Injecting far-flung ice-covered lunar oceans with earthly microbes to see how life is shaped may seem like the diabolical plot of a comic book supervillain.

But researchers say that given the likelihood of liquid oceans lying under the surfaces of places like Enceladus, Titan or Europa—all moons of Saturn or Jupiter—now is a good time to take the idea of inoculating a world with life seriously.

“Could this be humanity’s first biosphere genesis experiment?” says Charles Cockell, an astrobiologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

But life may be there already, which presents the first major ethical conundrum in any discussion of inoculating other worlds with life from Earth. Ideally, to conduct an inoculation experiment, you’d want a world that is uninhabited but habitable. If already inhabited, then any introduction we might make could really throw the alien ecosystem out of whack.

Our own planet is already full of inoculation experiments gone wrong.

A 'genius' who said he had been in touch with aliens vanished off the face of the Earth more than four decades ago.

On a stormy night of November 29, 1980, Granger Taylor disappeared from the Canadian town of Duncan, with the mystery of what actually happened to the 32-year-old still ongoing to this day.

Taylor reportedly left a note to his family, claiming he was preparing for a voyage aboard an alien spaceship - but promised he would return.

The prodigy also alleged he could communicate with aliens, and to this end had built a life-size replica of a spacecraft from parts he accumulated from the local dump.

His sister admitted to Vice that Taylor was known to take acid a 'few times a day' in the lead up to his disappearance and was known for dabbling in smoking cannabis.

And then he vanished out of thin air, leaving behind a note and all his Earthly possessions to his family.

In the note, Taylor said he was jetting off on a lengthy interstellar trip for three and a half years, but apparently never made it back home from wherever he had gone.

A prolific sci-fi author ponders the psychological impact of an alien encounter.

Key points

• Many relevant experts think that the universe likely contains numerous intelligent lifeforms.

• First Contact would probably be the most important event in the history of humankind.

• Our perspective on where we fit into the universe has changed radically through scientific discovery.

What is your best guess of how first contact would happen?

PC: I think the most likely form of first contact will be at a distance. We’re already detecting molecules in the atmosphere of exoplanets that could be the product of biological life. Perhaps one day, we’ll detect not only biological life at a distance, but technological life in the form of pollution in the air of an exoplanet, or radio signals from another planet. Any conversation we start will require patience, as talking to an intelligent species 15 light years from us would mean we’d need to wait 30 years for a response.

These findings add a new layer to the mystery surrounding the mummies, which were first discovered in 2017.

Quick Read

• Experts suggest alien mummies in Peru's Nazca desert may be murder victims.

• Injuries on the mummies indicate they may have suffered violent deaths.

• Initial claims of extraterrestrial origins have faced scrutiny from scientists.

Now, scientists believe the mummies are genuine and date back over 1,200 years. While their origins remain unknown, detailed studies of three mummies, namely Maria, Montserrat, and Antonio, suggest they may have been victims of violent deaths.

Dr. Jose Zalce, lead expert and former director of the Mexican Navy Medical Department, said that he conducted an in-depth analysis of 21 mysterious mummified bodies. His examination of Maria, a 5'6" female who died between 35-45 years old, revealed evidence of severe trauma. Maria's body showed signs of a deep cut and bite marks on her lower pelvis, along with multiple small puncture wounds extending from her tailbone to her hip. The skin and fat in the area had been removed, and two of her tailbone vertebrae were broken. Additionally, a zigzag-shaped wound suggested she may have suffered a fatal fall from a cliff onto rocks. These findings imply that Maria's death was likely violent and traumatic.

Part of the reason scientists have settled on the Big Bang theory as the best explanation of how the Universe came into being is because of an 'afterglow' it emits – but a new study suggests we may need to rethink the source of this faint radiation.

Technically, this afterglow is known as Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, and it's been traveling through space for more than 13 billion years, since soon after the Big Bang first went bang. It can be picked up by our most advanced telescopes.

Now, researchers from Nanjing University in China and the University of Bonn in Germany have run calculations suggesting we've overestimated the strength of the CMB. In fact, it might not even be there at all.

Randi, who as the ‘Amazing Randi’ had a long career as a magician and escapologist, also has the musical distinction of being the man who cut off the head of rock musician Alice Cooper with a magician’s guillotine. Nowadays, however, he uses exposure rather than execution, the scientific method rather than sleight of hand, to further the aims implicit in his adopted role of writer and psychic investigator – a career change which was greatly helped in 1986 by a $270,000 grant from the prestigious MacArthur Foundation.