How did life begin? This is one of the most fundamental questions scientists puzzle over. To address it, they have to look not just back to the primordial Earth, but […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Antarctic Microbes Hold Clue to Earth's Oxygen
At the bottom of an icy Antarctic lake, a thin, slimy layer of bright green microbes is generating a tiny oasis of oxygen that might give a picture of what […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release
Plants Appeared On Land Earlier Than Previously Thought
Plant biologists agree that it all began with green algae. At some point in our planet’s history, the common ancestor of trees, ferns, and flowers developed an alternating life cycle–presumably […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Evolution of the Ribosome: Looking Back 3.8 billion Years
NASA-funded researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are tapping information found in the cells of all life on Earth, and using it to trace life’s evolution. They have learned […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
New Insights on the Origins of Earth's Water
Water covers more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface, but its exact origins are still something of a mystery. Scientists have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Life on Earth Likely Started Much Earlier Than Thought
UCLA geochemists have found evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago — 300 million years earlier than previous research suggested. The discovery indicates that […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
New Insight Into Prebiotic Chemistry's 'Water Problem'
Inspired by previous work on chemistry’s ‘water problem’ and ‘asphalt problem,’ a team of researchers has provided new insight into the conditions in which nucleosides combine with phosphate to form […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Missions & Hardware, NASA Astrobiology Program, Origin & Evolution of Life, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
Report: NASA 2015 Astrobiology Strategy Identifies Priority Research
NASA’s strategic objective in planetary science is to determine the content, origin, and evolution of the Solar System and the potential for life elsewhere (2014 NASA Science Plan). Astrobiology research […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Earliest Jurassic Corals Discovered
Five times in Earth’s history mass extinction events have wiped out up to 90 percent of global life. University of Montana doctoral student Montana Hodges and geosciences Professor George Stanley […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Looking at The Limits for Life
Biological processes on the Earth operate within a parameter space that is constrained by physical and chemical extremes.