A scrappy science project led to a significant discovery: two new species of a rare organism that could elucidate a ...

To celebrate the groundbreaking research of 2025 Drake Award recipients Dr. David Deamer and Dr. John Baross, the SETI Institute commissioned bioartist Dr. Jennifer Willet to create a unique artwork ...

A fossil collector since childhood, Bob Hazen has come up with new scenarios for life's beginnings on earth billions of years ago. Amanda Lucidon A hilly green campus in Washington, D.C. houses two ...

At some point during the evolution of life on Earth, inorganic matter became organic, nonliving matter became living. How this happened is one of humankind's greatest mysteries. Today, scientists work ...

When a bone grows, our bodies’ proteins help provide the structure. When a muscle tears, proteins help rebuild it. When we fight an infection, transport oxygen in our blood or send messages to a cell, ...

Modern cells are complex chemical entities with cytoskeletons, finely regulated internal and external molecules, and genetic material that determines nearly every aspect of their functioning. This ...

A carbon atom can form four single bonds. Graphic: Carbon with four bonds in 3D. In three dimensions, these four bonds are arranged tetrahedrally. Graphic: Tetrahedral bond arrangement. Which means ...

How life evolved is one of the central questions in science and has fascinated humans for centuries. Early Earth was undoubtedly a harsh environment, but we know surprisingly little about the ...

In the late 1950s, a small group of scientists began to search for alien life. Among them was geneticist Joshua Lederberg at Stanford, who in 1960 spoke at the First International Space Science ...

In many submerged regions, murky mud shelters strange life-forms that seem to be the key to one of the biggest mysteries of life on Earth. These creatures belong to a domain of life called the archaea ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: A peer-reviewed analysis ...

Grab-and-go missions to asteroids have provided some of the most scientifically valuable samples since the Apollo missions—and they’re shaking up the search for life beyond Earth. The OSIRIS-REx ...