Swirling clouds of dust in space could harbour something akin to life -- according to computer simulations done by physicists in Russia, Germany and Australia. The simulations suggest that under certain conditions, dust particles could join together to form double-helix structures similar to DNA and even divide to create two identical copies of the same structure. Although the simulated dust is inorganic and so does not contain the carbon-based molecules found in all life on Earth, the researchers believe that their results hint at the possibility that inorganic life could exist elsewhere in the universe (New Journal of Physics 9 263).