Scientists have unearthed the key to life before its origin on Earth which they claim is an important discovery with respect to the mystery of “handedness” in biomolecules.

The researchers at Arizona State University have found that some of the possible abiotic precursors to the origin of life on our planet carry “handedness” in a larger number than previously thought.

They studied the organic materials of a special group of meteorites that contain among a variety of compounds, amino acids that have identical counterparts in terrestrial biomolecules. The meteorites are fragments of asteroids about the same age as the solar system (4.5 billion years).

When the researchers synthesised the molecules in the laboratory, half turned out to be “left-handed” and the other half “right-handed”. But amino acids, which are the building blocks of terrestrial proteins, are all “left-handed”, while the sugars of DNA and RNA are “right-handed”.

“The mystery as to why this is the case, parallels in many of its queries those that surround the origin of life,” according to lead researcher Sandra Pizzarello.

Years back, Pizzarello’s team analysed amino acids from the Murchison meteorite (which landed in Australia in 1969) that were unknown on Earth, hence solving the problem of any contamination. They discovered a
preponderance of “left-handed” amino acids over their “right-handed” form.

Drinking prolongs memories

If you think that you can drown your sorrows by guzzling a bottle of whisky, you are wrong. If a new study is to be believed, alcoholic drinks do not erase, instead prolong, the bad memories.

Researchers in Japan have carried out the study and found that alcohol contains an intoxicating agent called ethanol which actually locks the memory in place instead of decreasing or deleting it.

The researchers came to the conclusion after carrying out an experiment on rodents who were divided into two groups and given shocks so that they become fearful. Those rats in the first group were then injected with ethanol.

They found that the rodents with alcohol in their veins froze up for longer, with the fear on average lasting two weeks compared to rats that did not receive injections containing ethanol.

However, the researchers have a solution for those who want to get rid of their bad memories.

“To forget something you dislike, it’s best to overwrite the negative memory with a positive memory at an early stage and leave out drinking alcohol,” lead researcher Professor Norio Matsuki of the University of Tokyo wrote.

Mega-collision with Venus

A British scientific research has suggested that Earths variation with its “evil twin” Venus could be the result of a massive-collision between two large embryonic planets.

According to the research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the collision could explain why the interior of Venus is dry, the odd rotation of the planet and the carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Venus is a sister planet to Earth. Described as Earths evil twin, it is nearly of the same size and density yet it has a surface temperature of 720 K, an atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide and no evidence of oceans or ridges.

Huw Davies of the Cardiff university’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences in UK argues that a mega-collision could explain these variations.

“A collision theory has been explored by scientists previously but was abandoned as the planet Venus has no moon usually expected from such an impact. However, a mega-impact could have created Venus, since the head-on collision I propose does not produce a moon,” said Davies.

Fish can count up to four

Fish have the limited ability to count directly up to four, say scientists. Christian Agrillo, an experimental psychologist at the university of Padua in Italy, said that it was during a study on North American mosquito fish that their limited mathematical ability was observed.

The researcher said that the fish used its mathematical ability to count the number of other fish around it.

“We have provided the first evidence that fish exhibit rudimentary mathematical abilities,” Agrillo said.

He also revealed that his latest study was a follow-up to a previous study wherein he and his colleagues showed that, upon being harassed by a male fish, a female mosquito fish would try to avoid his attentions by seeking solace in the largest nearby shoal.

That study demonstrated that the fish could differentiate between bigger shoals and smaller ones.