A substance poisonous to humans—hydrogen cyanide—may have helped create the seeds of life on Earth. At cold temperatures, ...

The origin of life on Earth becomes even more fascinating and complex as we peer into the mysterious world of viruses. Said ...

Ushikuvirus is a newly identified giant virus that infects amoebas, adding to a growing group of oversized viruses that scientists believe may have played an important role in the emergence of complex ...

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

Ushikuvirus, an amoeba-infecting giant virus, joins the family of giant viruses that may have driven the evolution of complex ...

In a new peer reviewed analysis, scientists quantify amino acids before and after our “last universal common ancestor.” The last universal common ancestor is the single life form that branched into ...

How did the building blocks of life come together to spawn the first organisms? It’s one of the most longstanding questions in biology — and scientists just got a major clue. In a new study published ...

RNA probably came before DNA, serving as the storehouse of genetic information and driving chemical reactions; a ...

Visitors can wander through halls filled with dinosaur fossils, mounted mammals, minerals and global wildlife specimens.

Who were our earliest ancestors? The answer could lie in a special group of single-celled organisms with a cytoskeleton similar to that of complex organisms, such as animals and plants. Ten years ago, ...

The origin of life could therefore be closely linked to the special environment of large soda lakes, which, due to their geological setting and phosphorus balance, provided ideal conditions for ...