Keith Cowing

[The Hebrew University of Jerusalem] Researchers have identified a simple form of molecular cooperation that may have helped life’s earliest building blocks become more stable and organized. By linking fatty acids, which can form primitive cell membranes, with hydroxy acids, which can form short polymers, the team showed that short oligomers can grow directly on amphiphilic molecules, creating hybrid lipid–polymer structures that assemble more readily and resist breakdown in water.

Skip to content ID: ESP_077162_2650 date: 11 January 2023 altitude: 319 km NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona larger image [NASA/Univ Arizona]. Avalanches have been observed at this scarp, which is just north of the another scarp location with such activity. Monitoring this site in the Martian spring is key to constrain the frequency of avalanches and timing of the onset of “avalanche season”.

[FEMS Microbes] Pyrenean ice caves are the least studies cryogenic environments that preserve perennial ice. These caves host microbial communities adapted to extreme oligotrophy, low temperatures, and episodic water availability, making them valuable analogues for subsurface habitats on icy planetary bodies.