Life may have become cellular by using unusual molecules

(Tokyo Institute of Technology) All modern life is cellular, but how life came to be cellular remains uncertain. New research shows that simple chemical compounds known as hydroxy acids, which were likely common on primitive Earth, spontaneously link together and form structures reminiscent of cells when dried from solution, as may have happened on primitive beaches. The resulting structures may have helped scaffold the emergence of biological cellularity, and offer scientists a new avenue for s...