NASA's Discovery Redefines Life's Origins and Molecular Mysteries

A study by UCLA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center challenges the traditional view of life's molecular origins, suggesting early RNA structures were more flexible in their chirality preferences than previously thought. This finding implies that life's building blocks on Earth may not have been strictly "left-handed" or "right-handed," as once believed, and could have evolved through environmental pressures rather than chemical determinism. The research has significant implications for understanding life's origins and the search for extraterrestrial life, suggesting that life elsewhere might not conform to Earth's chiral norms.