"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last ...

Nitrogen, upon which all life on Earth depends, may hold the key for explaining how early life on the planet evolved and how it could evolve on other planets.

By resurrecting a 3.2-billion-year-old enzyme and studying it inside living microbes, researchers at the University of ...

By Sean Mowbray Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. We’ve pieced together a remarkably detailed timeline of ...

Our planet is unique for its ability to sustain abundant life. From studies of the rock record, scientists believe life had already emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago and probably much ...

Scientists have warned that research into “mirror life” organisms — hypothetical life forms made up of molecules that perfectly mirror those found in regular life — should be stopped. Theoretically, ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 ...