The colossal movements of tectonic plates shape our world, influencing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere, the planet’s protective magnetic field and perhaps even the flourishing of life. Now ...

Asteroids would’ve supplied the raw materials, heat, and geologic plumbing to circulate prebiotic matter while also creating ...

How can animate life be formed from inanimate matter? It’s one of the most fascinating enigmas in science because, without this crucial first step, called abiogenesis, there would be no life on Earth.

A close-up of the surface of asteroid Ryugu. (MASCOT/DLR/JAXA) A new analysis of samples collected from asteroid Ryugu has yielded all five canonical nucleobases that make up RNA and DNA. It's not the ...

All five of the canonical nucleobases – the underpinnings of DNA, RNA and life on Earth – have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu ...

Two of the most intriguing questions in science are: How did life on Earth begin? and Is there life elsewhere in the universe? Given the enormous interest in these questions, you might expect that the ...

Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth is a question that has fascinated humans for a long time, and modern scientists have made great advances when it comes to finding some answers. Now, ...

Life thrived on Earth far earlier than previously believed, flourishing under the harsh reign of the Hadean eon. LUCA—the last universal common ancestor—was even designed to fend off ancient viruses.

How can we measure time more than 500 million years into the past? A study recently published in Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Lausanne presents a new geological "rock ...

This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. Illustration of the Earth-like exoplanet Proxima Centauri b orbiting the star Proxima ...

Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test — a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth’s habitability, based in part on ocean acidity. The new ...