Life pioneers
Palaeontology is the science that studies the ancient living beings, their origin and evolution. This study requires the examination of the animal and vegetal remains that lived in the past and that we find today as fossils inside sedimentary rocks. Primordial organisms had very simple and small shapes, so they could not turn into fossil remains. The most ancient fossils to have been found so far date back to approximately 3 billion years ago. How have the first living organisms originated? Before the appearance of life, the Earth’s landscape was dominated by active volcanoes, a grey, lifeless ocean and a very turbulent atmosphere. The ocean received organic substances from the mainland, the atmosphere and the fall of meteorites and comets. And the ocean is the place in which such substances as water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia chemically reacted, producing sugars, amino-acids and fats. These molecules are the raw material required for the formation of proteins and nucleic acids that are the basic compounds of any living organism.
Special reports
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
10 April 2020
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
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10 October 2022
Spider lullaby
There are spiders that weave a classic web, that one we all know, to catch prey. There are others who…
19 September 2022
Double blow to dinosaurs
The Main Asteroid Belt is between Mars and Jupiter, an enormous ring consisting of millions of large and small rocks…
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24 May 2022
Amphibians in peril
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns: the extinction rate of amphibians is about 200 times greater than…
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
27 February 2022
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
10 April 2020
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
-
10 October 2022
Spider lullaby
There are spiders that weave a classic web, that one we all know, to catch prey. There are others who…
19 September 2022
Double blow to dinosaurs
The Main Asteroid Belt is between Mars and Jupiter, an enormous ring consisting of millions of large and small rocks…
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
10 April 2020
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
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The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
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The tree and the truffle
Truffles are hypogean (underground) fungi which grow in the presence of particular trees such as oaks, holm oaks and willows,…
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23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
-
16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
-
13 May 2011
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
-
23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
-
16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…