A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesised in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life, finds a new ...

The building blocks of life may exist far beyond Earth. This video explores the chemistry inside planet-forming discs, where water and organic molecules are already forming. Discover how the ...

If you’ve ever been on a cave tour where the guide shines a black light, you’ve seen the walls and formations glow. The stunning fluorescence is often the result of impurities trapped in calcite rocks ...

NASA's Curiosity rover has found a diverse mix of organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals considered building blocks for the origin of life on Earth. When you purchase through links on our site ...

Explaining isolated steps on the road from simple chemicals to complex living organisms is not enough. Looking at the big picture could help to bridge rifts in this fractured research field. The ...

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered never-before-seen organic compounds that may indicate there was once life on the red planet. The nuclear-powered robot uncovered a diverse mix of organic ...

The search for habitable conditions beyond Earth has just become more interesting with the discovery of biologically available phosphorus from one of Saturn’s moons. Phosphorus is the most elusive of ...