It’s a paradox: Life needs water to survive, but a world full of water can’t generate the biomolecules that would have been essential for early life. Or so researchers thought. However, when the first ...

A new study theorizes that evolution ticks at different speeds, especially when a big group of organisms first appears.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The origins of how life on Earth arose remains a deep existential ...

Scientists have long queried how the complex molecules needed for life could have formed around the tumultuous and violent environment of the sun in its youth. A family of meteorites called ...

How life emerged on Earth is among the most significant mysteries in science. Though it remains an open question in biology, scientists have some pretty promising theories as to how a chemical soup ...

Researchers demonstrated how amino acids could spontaneously attach to RNA under early Earth-like conditions using thioesters, providing a long-sought clue to the origins of protein synthesis. This ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? Although it’s long been suggested that hydrothermal vents could’ve played a starring ...

New research shows that rainwater could have helped create a meshy wall around protocells 3.8 billion years ago, a critical step in the transition from tiny beads of RNA to every bacterium, plant, ...

The prebiotic Earth was a harsh and unstable environment, characterized by intense heat, active volcanoes and little atmosphere. How, then, did the molecular building blocks of life first form? Among ...

This story first appeared at UCSB’s The Current. In mythologies and origin stories around the world, various cultures and religions point to clay as the vessel of life, the primordial material that ...