The new findings strengthen the "RNA world" hypothesis that describes how the first life on Earth could have used RNA instead ...

For more than a century, the idea that life might have arrived on our planet from elsewhere in the cosmos sat at the fringes ...

How did life begin on Earth? While scientists have theories, they don't yet fully understand the precise chemical steps that led to biology, or when the first primitive life forms appeared.

Hydrogen cyanide, a toxic chemical, may have helped spark the chemistry that led to life. When frozen, it forms crystals with ...

Life on Earth began in a world of volcanic eruptions, violent storms, and a toxic atmosphere. Yet somehow, from this chaos, ...

Grab-and-go missions to asteroids have provided some of the most scientifically valuable samples since the Apollo ...

The mystery of how life on Earth originated , and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe, are "the raison d’être of space exploration", said Louis Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society.

Seán Jordan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...