Oxygen, essential to our existence, took nearly a billion years to appear in significant quantities on Earth, despite the presence of microorganisms capable of producing it. This delay in our planet's ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Plate tectonics may have played a larger role in the evolution of life on Earth than we ...

New method reveals chemical signs of early microbial life in ancient Earth rocks, showing photosynthesis evolved much earlier ...

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 ...

The emergence of life on Earth rests on a surprising paradox: how could simple molecules organize into complex systems without the help of cells? An international team of researchers puts forward an ...

Calcium tartrate crystals can coexist with tartrate-containing polyester microdroplets, suggesting the potential for dynamic phase transitions of tartrates or tartrate-containing molecules on early ...

New research from Japan's iron-rich hot springs shows how early microbes may have harnessed iron and oxygen during the Great Oxygenation Event. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn ...

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 ...

A new study by researchers in Japan offers new insights into how protocells may have inherited and enriched genetic material before modern biology emerged. By exposing mixed phospholipid vesicles to ...

It's not news, although it's something that will happen many years from now: life on Earth has an expiration date. According to different research and studies, there will be no tra ...