For decades, scientists have scoured the skies and planetary surfaces for evidence that life might exist beyond Earth. New research, published in Nature and highlighted by National Geographic, ...

Evidence is mounting that the same basic chemistry that made Earth habitable is unfolding, or once unfolded, on Mars. From ...

A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesized in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life. A chemical ...

If nonliving materials can produce rich, organized mixtures of organic molecules, then the traditional signs we use to ...

New research shows how RNA, a key molecule for life, may have formed on early Earth using simple chemistry and materials delivered by asteroid impacts, linking space science with the origins of life ...

The origin of life on Earth stands as one of the great mysteries of science. Various answers have been proposed, all of which remain unverified. To find out if we are alone in the galaxy, we will need ...

The most common theory about the emergence of prebiotic amino acids can’t account for cysteine, so origin-of-life researchers have proposed that it is a product of evolution. A new study proposes a ...

A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesised in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life, finds a new ...