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LINDAU, Germany--What steps led to the origin of life on Earth? Scientists may be zeroing in on that most profound of questions. “We’ve gone a long way to showing” the processes that “set the stage” for cellular life on Earth, Jack Szostak said Tuesday here in his talk at the 60th annual Nobel Laureate Lectures at Lindau .

Recent findings--such as that life seems to be everywhere on Earth--have encouraged scientific inquiries into the nature of life’s beginnings, said Szostak. Along with Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work in understanding telomeres [see Blackburn and Greider's Scientific American article “ Telomeres, Telomerase and Cancer ”]. His talk focused on his recent research on life’s start [see his Scientific American 2009 article, “ The Origin of Life on Earth ”]. He cited discoveries of microbes eking out existence in steaming hot springs in Yellowstone, in an acidic environment in Rio Tinto, Spain, and other hostile locations. “Even in rocks, there’s life,” he added, showing the audience an image of a green streak tenaciously spreading through rock. “Once life gets started, it can adapt and colonize many, many different environments.” In addition, astronomers have found hundreds of planets in other solar systems , and the space-based Kepler telescope recently identified more than 700 more candidate exoplanets. Many of those could have Earth-like conditions, raising the possibility that they also could harbor some form of life. How common might life be? “The question is: Is it easy or hard to make the transition in the chemistry of planets from not alive to alive?” asked Szostak.

Light makes for a terrific carrier of information--witness the prevalence of fiber optics in telecommunications--and the realm of quantum communication is no different. Photons are key quantum objects that can carry information over large distances and that can be entangled in relatively large numbers . [More]

Just as bacteria and fungi are methodically breaking down the millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, microbes might help us with another uncontrolled emission due to human activity--carbon dioxide. [More]

Editor's Note: Marine biologist William Gilly is on an expedition to study Humboldt squid on the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessel New Horizon in the Gulf of California. He and other scientists are learning about the giant squid, their biology and ecology on this National Science Foundation-funded expedition. This is his sixth blog post about the trip. [More]