On Earth, deep-sea vents may have given rise to the planet’s first life. But nothing of the sort seems to be happening at the ...

This short preview sets the stage for a larger journey across space, time, and consciousness — imagining forms of life that ...

Exceptionally preserved fossils from the Ediacaran period challenge what scientists thought was possible in sandstone. In the fossil record, creatures without hard shells or skeletons, such as ...

Some animals on Earth look so unusual that they appear almost alien. Their shapes, movements, and survival strategies challenge familiar ideas of what life should look like. Scientists study these ...

Consciousness could be a fundamental part of reality, like gravity or matter, according to this controversial theory.

A new paper posits that advanced alien civilizations may communicate through subtle flashes, like fireflies do on Earth. The ...

A composite view of Mars taken by the Viking I and II probes. NASA/USGS In September, NASA announced the discovery of a possible sign of life, known as a potential biosignature, on Mars. The ...

Europa has long been the darling of the search for life beyond Earth. The reason is simple: beneath its cracked, icy shell ...

In the year 1998, Bill Clinton was facing impeachment proceedings, "Titanic" was cleaning up at the Oscars and most households still had landline phones. Gallup and USA Today called up 1,055 Americans ...

If nonliving materials can produce rich, organized mixtures of organic molecules, then the traditional signs we use to recognize biology may no longer be enough.

A rapid climate collapse during the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction devastated ocean life and reshuffled Earth’s ecosystems.