Tootfinder

Every time I see a screenshot in place of a link, I feel sad for the web.
I don’t necessarily blame those who commit such atrocities, the fault lies with those of us who enabled a system where transferring a multi-megabyte image is *easier* than the link to see the same thing.
But I still feel sad.

♨️ Underwater thermal vents may have given rise to the first molecular precursors of life
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-underwater-thermal-vents-molecular-precursors.html

Underwater thermal vents may have given rise to the first molecular precursors of life
A study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society has recreated in the laboratory chemical reactions that may have occurred on Earth about four billion years ago, producing the first molecular precursors for the emergence of life.

Probing the Physics of Dusty Outflows through Complex Organic Molecules in the Early Universe
Andrey Vayner, Tanio D\'iaz-Santos, Carl D. Ferkinhoff, Peter R. M. Eisenhardt, Daniel Stern, Lee Armus, Brandon S. Hensley, Daniel Angl\'es-Alc\'azar, Roberto J. Assef, Rom\'an Fern\'andez Aranda, Andrew W. Blain, Hyunsung D. Jun, Norman W. Murray, Shelley Wright, Chao-Wei Tsai, Thomas Lai, Niranjan Chandra Roy, Drew Brisbin, Manuel Aravena, Jorge Gonz\'alez-L\'ope…

Probing the Physics of Dusty Outflows through Complex Organic Molecules in the Early Universe
Galaxy-scale outflows are of critical importance for galaxy formation and evolution. Dust grains are the main sites for the formation of molecules needed for star formation but are also important for the acceleration of outflows that can remove the gas reservoir critical for stellar mass growth. Using the MIRI medium-resolution integral field spectrograph aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we detect the 3.28 $μ$m aromatic and the 3.4 $μ$m aliphatic hydrocarbon dust features in abso…

Just listened to an interesting online talk (#Balloon Facility (https://www.tifr.res.in/bf/) - here are the slides about astronomical observations they do; see also https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.04877 for a 2021 review paper about this work and the mentioned papers https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2013/08/aa21614-13/aa21614-13.html ("Large-scale mapping of the massive star-forming region RCW38 in the [CII] and PAH emission") and https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2021/07/aa35739-19/aa35739-19.html ("[CII] emission properties of the massive star-forming region RCW 36 in a filamentary molecular cloud").

Before plants or animals, fungi conquered Earth’s surface #nature

Before plants or animals, fungi conquered Earth’s surface
Fungi’s evolutionary roots stretch far deeper than once believed — up to 1.4 billion years ago, long before plants or animals appeared. Using advanced molecular dating and gene transfer analysis, researchers reconstructed fungi’s ancient lineage, revealing they were crucial in shaping Earth’s first soils and ecosystems.