London based researchers may have solved one of biology's most most anticipated mysteries by uncovering a chemical reaction on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 that will possibly explain life starting on earth.
Study published in, Nature journal, by University College London scientists marking the first experimental observation of this crucial reaction under plausible early planetary conditions.
Authors described it successfully linking amino acids to RNA in water-based conditions resembling those of primordial Earth.
Professor Matthew Powner, author in the publication, wrote: "Molecules don't inherently communicate with the amino acids they need to control in protein synthesis. How these two molecules first became linked has been an open question for decades."
Lead author Dr. Jyoti Singh penned down the significance of work: "Our study demonstrates how two primordial chemical LEGO pieces could have built peptides, short chains of amino acids that are essential to life.”
The team achieved this milestone by attaching amino acids to sulphur-bearing thioesters, compounds abundant in the early world, which then reacted spontaneously and selectively with RNA molecules.
Exceptionally the RNA's natural structure guided these amino acids to the precise molecular location required for eventual protein synthesis.
