Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse of the molecular cloud, ...

Researchers recreated conditions from billions of years ago and found that Earth’s young atmosphere could make key molecules ...

One of the most elegant theories about the origins of life on our planet is that it was kick-started by a delivery from outer ...

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 ...

In the beginning, there was soup. One leading explanation for how life arose on Earth is that simple chemicals in water, a primordial “soup,” formed in the hot, tumultuous early world and ...

Peptides, one of the fundamental building blocks of life, can be formed from the primitive precursors of amino acids under conditions similar to those expected on the primordial Earth, finds a new ...

In 1929 British biochemist John Haldane (1892-1964) put forth the theory that the early atmosphere of Earth contained no free oxygen. Haldane and Soviet biochemist Aleksander Oparin (1894-1980) had ...

Earth didn't always harbor life. But around 4 billion years ago, something in the environment changed, and systems with biological properties began to emerge. Many scientists believe a lively dance of ...

Seegers, W. H., Casillas, G., Shepard, R. S., Thomas, W. R., and Halick, P., Canad. J. Biochem. Physiol., 37, 775 (1959).