The origin of life is one of the most fundamental and enduring questions of mankind and one of the three greatest Origin ...

A mass extinction event wiped out around 90% of life. What followed has long puzzled scientists: The planet became lethally ...

Micrometeorites are thought to shower down on planets throughout the universe, so the discovery that they help protocells ...

Scientists agreed the rocky outcrops in a remote part of Quebec, Canada, were ancient. But were they really Earth’s oldest?

Earth's earliest life forms developed ways to survive the harmful effects of arsenic to cope with dramatic changes in their ...

The slightly warmer temperatures around the middle of the Earth melted the top layers of ice to form meltwater ponds that hovered around 0°C. This stable, warmer temperature could have served as a ...

Wave-like landforms on Mars provide clues about the planet’s icy history, its potential to support life, and the behavior of ...

Modern-day environments in Antarctica contain ponds filled with life forms that closely resemble early multicellular ...

Strata: Stories from Deep Time’ explores the origins of the air we breathe and untangles some of our planet’s oldest stories.

The second half of the 19th century was a particularly interesting time to imagine Mars. This was a period during which the ...

Did you know that some of the oldest human-made structures on Earth align precisely with the rising sun on the summer ...

A groundbreaking study suggests that the famous Cambrian explosion—the dramatic burst of diverse animal life—might have actually started millions of years earlier than we thought. By analyzing ancient ...