Kate Adamala started work on a cell in which the natural molecular structure is reversed. Then a possible doomsday scenario became clear.

It's tiny and needy, but is it alive? That's a question prompted by recent research that highlights a surprisingly complex part of biology. The organism in question is a microbe called Sukunaarchaeum ...

All known natural life uses L (left-handed) amino acids in proteins and D (right-handed) sugars in DNA and RNA. In contrast, mirror life would use D proteins and L sugars — effectively a reversed ...

Metacaspases, ancestral homologues of the caspase family, are pivotal cysteine proteases found in a wide range of unicellular organisms, including yeasts, algae, and phytoplankton. These enzymes ...

Cells can die naturally from age or disease, but organisms can also actively trigger the death of certain cells when needed. This is known as programmed cell death (PCD), a central biological system ...