luca:-our-last-universal-common-ancestor-#biology-#science

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An interdisciplinary group applied the latest tricks of phylogenetics — using genes and genomes to build evolutionary trees — to trace all of modern life back to our shared ancestor. This ancient cell, or population of cells, is known as LUCA, which stands for “last universal common ancestor,” the oneContinue Reading

mirror-molecules:-the-symmetry-rule-life-never-breaks

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Most organic molecules have a mirror-image twin. This concept is known as chirality. Yet life only uses one chiral molecule, not the other. The reason for this asymmetry is one of the greatest mysteries of biology. From Louis Pasteur to stereochemistry to the concept of mirror life, here is theContinue Reading