Free Republic

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Researchers at the University of Florida say they have shown that minerals were key to some of the initial processes that formed life on Earth. Specifically, a borax-containing mineral known as colemanite helps convert organic molecules found in interstellar dust clouds into a sugar, known as ribose, central to the genetic material called RNA. This announcement provides a key step toward solving the 3-billion-year-old mystery of how life on Earth began. The findings will appear in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Steven Benner, Alonso Ricardo, Matthew Carrigan and Alison Olcott built on a famous experiment done...

MOJAVE - More than a century ago, 20-mule teams labored out of Death Valley hauling borax over the steep Panamint Mountains to Mojave, the nearest railroad terminal, which was 165 miles away. Many older Americans remember "Death Valley Days," a weekly television show that ran from 1952 to 1970 with hosts such as Ronald Reagan, who went on to be governor of California, then president of the United States, as well as entertainers Robert Taylor, Dale Robertson and Merle Haggard. The show perpetuated the folklore of the 20-mule teams. A bit of history will come alive Saturday, Oct. 6 as...