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 ...

Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The ...

This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disc, volatile gases are frozen out as ice, which contains complex organic molecules.

The Triassic is one of the most important periods in the evolution of life on Earth. After one of the greatest mass extinctions 252 million years ago, not only the dinosaurs but also many other groups ...

Ushikuvirus, an amoeba-infecting giant virus, joins the family of giant viruses that may have driven the evolution of complex cells The origin of life on Earth becomes even more fascinating and ...

A groundbreaking study suggests that the famous Cambrian explosion—the dramatic burst of diverse animal life—might have actually started millions of years earlier than we thought. By analyzing ancient ...