The question of life's origin on Earth continues to surprise. A new study challenges an old idea: that a chemical reaction called the formose reaction could have created the first sugars necessary for ...

Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, a finding that solves a long ...

Tiny fragments could tell the story of life's beginnings. Genes are like a recipe that tells cells how to function. But the ...

New research suggests that the origins of life may be tied not only to deep-sea hydrothermal vents but also to environments ...

Billions of years of evolution have made modern cells incredibly complex. Inside cells are small compartments called organelles that perform specific functions essential for the cell’s survival and ...

The origin of life could therefore be closely linked to the special environment of large soda lakes, which, due to their geological setting and phosphorus balance, provided ideal conditions for ...

In a new book, astrophysicist Mario Livio describes how the existence of life on Earth can be traced back to an RNA-based “protocell.” The following is an excerpt from Is Earth Exceptional?: The Quest ...

Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments discovered gene fragments that indicated a new and previously undiscovered form ...

The study of the origin of life and prebiotic chemistry seeks to elucidate how inanimate chemical systems transitioned into self‐sustaining, evolving entities. Research in this field integrates ...

The origin of life on Earth has been mulled over by scientists for centuries. We now know that life’s building blocks are RNA, amino acids, and cells. But if life originated from the primordial ooze ...