All life on Earth comes from one single ancestor. And it's so much older than we thought. All life on Earth can be traced ...

One key component might be RNA, a molecular cousin of DNA found in every form of life on Earth, and now scientists say they ...

About 700 million years ago, enormous glaciers flowed across the Earth's surface in powerful frozen rivers like "giant ice bulldozers" that pulverized our planet's crust and may have contributed to ...

Bennu samples reveal biological sugars, a strange, gum-like material, and ancient stardust that shed light on the early solar ...

According to a new study, Earth’s atmosphere might have been more important for the origin of life story than we gave it credit for.

A groundbreaking study published in ChemSystemsChem proposes that the origins of life on Earth might not stem from biomolecules or biopolymers, as traditionally thought, but rather from surface-bound ...

Scientists are debating the Earth's first creature, with evidence pointing to simple, sponge-like organisms emerging around ...

Between a rock and a green place: Michelle Gehringer studies fossilized life on early Earth to learn more about the evolution of (oxygenic) photosynthesis - the process that makes the oxygen we breath ...

People have long wondered what life was first like on Earth, and if there is life in our solar system beyond our planet. Scientists have reason to believe that some of the moons in our solar system – ...

Researchers recreated conditions from billions of years ago and found that Earth’s young atmosphere could make key molecules ...

Introduction : The coherence of history / Stephen Jay Gould -- The planetary setting of prebiotic evolution / Sherwood Chang -- Early environments : constraints and opportunities for early evolution / ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. We’ve pieced together a remarkably detailed timeline of ...