Learn more about the top theories about how life began on Earth, and how it may not have started from scratch.

The volume of the ocean, its average purity, and the chemical makeup of H₂O allow a simple estimate of the amount of hydrogen ...

Living organisms share an ancestor called the last universal common ancestor, or LUCA. LUCA is estimated to have lived ...

Ancient microbes tied to our earliest ancestors could use oxygen, reshaping ideas about how complex life began on Earth.

How can animate life be formed from inanimate matter? It’s one of the most fascinating enigmas in science because, without this crucial first step, called abiogenesis, there would be no life on Earth.

How did life begin on Earth? While scientists have theories, they don't yet fully understand the precise chemical steps that led to biology, or when the first primitive life forms appeared. But what ...

New scientific theory based on ancient proteins suggests that genes did not arise as we believed and that life could have started elsewhere.

This model reveals how vastly different the atmosphere was on ancient Earth, and how life may have first emerged. The key to unlocking the secrets of distant planets starts right here on Earth.

We have only one example of biology forming in the universe — life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like ...

Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life ...